Scarlet
by Ely-Baby
Summary: Head Auror Harry James Potter pissed off one too many people when he ordered a raid to close down all Wizarding whorehouses. Now, Theodore Nott has stolen something precious from him and his vendetta will be vicious.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimers:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Author's Notes: **Unbeta'd - bite me if you find thousands of mistakes, I'm not an English mother-tongue and I'm tired of waiting for my betas and their extremely long times. I've written 600,000 words of fanfiction in the past few months and considering how slow my betas are, you'll never ever see them. Maybe your children. Or the children of your children. This is a bit of a release. I'll update at my own pace, and as much as I want. It's honestly fracking liberating. Also, I think you should review this if you like it, you know... It would be nice.

This is going to be dark. Very dark. This is being cross-posted on AO3, so for a detailed list of characters and pairings head that way. WARNINGS: Rape/Non-Con, Underage, Graphic Depiction of Violence, Torture, Forced Prostitution, Explicit Sexual Content, Oral Sex, Anal Sex. Tissue warning, if you are particularly sensitive. I am. I cried.

Scenes are going to be short and chapters, as well, are going to be extremely short (okay between 2,000 and 5,000 words, to me that's EXTREMELY short, because I'm used to write from 12,000 to 22,000 words per chapter), which is another liberating thing. It's a stylistic choice, by the way. Hopefully though the emotions will shine through despite its brevity.

Also, this is dedicated to all the children who are abducted every day. I can't even start to imagine what their families go through. The very thought of losing someone that way makes my heart ache and I send all my love to people who have gone or are going through that right now.

One last thing, if you like this story vote for it in the poll on my profile! Nothing happens, really, but you let me know that you like it and that's really nice for me. So far, "Not Now, Nor Never" is winning, but I think it might be because it's the only story where I've remembered to tell my readers about the poll! LOL! You can vote up to three stories anyway!

* * *

**Prologue**

When asked about it afterwards, the second thing that Molly Weasley recalled about that day was the wind. A strong, warm wind that made her laundry flutter on the long lines behind the Burrow, creating a fascinating game of lights and shadows on the grass and the flowerbeds.

The first thing that she remembered, though, were Harry's upset expression and Ginny's big, fat tears as they sat at the table in her kitchen. She recalled Hugo's scared face while he was questioned incessantly by the Aurors; until his own uncle had grabbed his arm and shook him lightly the moment he couldn't remember where exactly in the garden they were standing when it had happened, and the little boy had started crying in earnest. She could recall Ron as he brought him away and tried to calm down Harry, and Hermione as she comforted Ginny.

And she remembered Aurors.

Aurors everywhere. Searching, questioning, taking measurements, firing spells, and discovering nothing at all. Aurors asking her things over and over again, until they brought up her own tears, even though she had never stopped crying from that very morning.

Because she was gone. Completely gone as if she had disappeared into thin air.

ooo

That morning, Molly Weasley smoothed the bed linen on the line and sighed.

The grounds behind the Burrow were quiet. So much quieter now that Rose and Albus had finally started at Hogwarts the week before, Molly almost didn't like it. She was not used to it. She needed noise and the sound of laughter and cries and little voices that called her and asked her to heal a grazed knee or to give them a glass of milk.

She wiped away some sweat from her brow and picked one of her nightgowns from the pile in the basket, waving it in the wind to flat it gently before pegging it out next to the linen.

She narrowed her eyes in concentration, and tried to focus to remember whether either Hugo or Lily didn't like fish. She had bought soles at the fish market in Ottery St Catchpole the day before, and Arthur had told her he had a craving for her garlic cream sauce. She was only happy when she managed to recall that it was Albus the one who had thrown a tantrum when he was five and a fishbone had got stuck in his tooth for three hours, swearing to never eat fish again from that very day to his death.

She bent over to pick up a pair of Arthur's underwear and almost startled and let them fall when she saw a little shadow appearing and disappearing behind the fluttering laundry.

She smiled and picked the underwear up once again, waving it out like a flag.

"Hello, Hugo," she said sweetly, "having fun playing?"

Her grandson didn't reply, but she could see his little legs and bare feet twitching in nervousness amongst the tall grass.

"You're so silent, Dear," she said gently, pegging the underwear on the line. She moved the bed linen out of the way to look at him.

His blue eyes – Ron's blue eyes – were as big as saucers as he looked at her. His freckled, little hands were grasping his dirty t-shirt and his shorts were fluttering in the wind.

"Where's Lily, Darling?" she asked as she found a sock on the ground and let the linen fall back into place to pick it up.

He hesitated a little, his toes curling in the ground. "She's gone," he finally said, his voice tiny.

Molly tossed some locks of hair behind her shoulders. "She's gone?" she asked half-amusedly. "Are you playing hide and seek again? Is she hiding?" She moved the linen again and looked at him with a beaming smile.

Hugo shook his head, his eyes still wide.

She cocked her head and felt her smile faltering before disappearing completely from her face. Suddenly she felt as if there was something wrong. Something out of place. Something not quite right in the way Hugo was behaving.

"Hugo," she said a bit breathlessly as she walked past the linen and came to kneel near him, "where's Lily?"

"_He_ took her away," he replied, his voice a whisper.

Molly felt her heartbeat echoing in every cell of her body, her fingers tingling with fear. She grabbed his little arm in her plump hand and looked at him as tears started to swell up in the boy's eyes. "Who took her away, Hugo?" she asked urgently, her voice just a throaty murmur.

He was crying when he whispered, "The man with the mask."

ooo

**Head Auror's Daughter Kidnapped**

_Lily Luna Potter, aged nine, disappeared yesterday morning from her grandparents' backyard in Devon. The little girl was playing unsupervised with her cousin, also aged nine, while their grandfather was in the near town of Ottery St Catchpole, running some errands, and their grandmother was hanging out the laundry. The girl's cousin was the only witness to the crime and according to him Lily was taken away by a 'tall, big man wearing a mask', and after having been stunned into unconsciousness. The boy was in shock and, when questioned, could not give enough information for the Aurors to start following a lead. He is currently in St Mungo's for psychological support after having witnessed his cousin's disappearance. Aurors are convinced that this is not a bravado, but the most plausible theory is that of a revenge kidnapping. Currently, investigations are underway, focusing amongst Auror Harry James Potter's list of potential enemies. The little girl answers to the name of Lily, she has long, red hair, brown eyes and white skin with freckles. She is four-feet-five and rather small. If anybody has any information about her is asked to owl the Ministry without delay._

ooo

"Nott. Nott, you have to take her back."

Theodore Nott looked at Gregory Goyle, disgust painted over his face. "You sound like you are scared, Goyle," he said haughtily.

Goyle gritted his teeth, his nostrils flaring. "She's not another Muggle girl," he hissed, "someone that the Muggle police will consider a lost cause. She's the Head Auror's only daughter. They'll turn the whole Wizarding World upside down to find her."

"Let them do it," he replied coldly, "I dare them to find her here."

Goyle took a deep breath, as if to calm himself down. "Okay," he said, looking at Nott like he was a madman, "we have to do it quickly, though. Kill her and put her body somewhere where nobody can go back at us."

Nott looked at him and snorted. "Kill her?" he asked harshly. "I don't want to kill her."

Goyle's eyes widened. "What the hell are you talking about?" Large beads of sweat were running down his temples now and he brushed them away with his forearm.

Nott returned his eyes on the lying form of the child. She was still unconscious, her body too small and weak for the spell he had sent her way. He would have had to use a Reviving Spell to wake her up. "I don't want to kill her," he repeated, "that would be a waste. No, Harry Potter had wiped away my business in just one night. With his raid, he had closed all my whorehouses and taken away all my money." He snorted. "He doesn't like prostitutes, does he? Well, too bad that that is what his only daughter will become."

Goyle's jaw dropped. "That's… that's ridiculous, Nott, you can't have her in a brothel… what if… if a client recognizes her…"

"She'll be the jewel in my crown," he continued, ignoring him, "clients will have to pay such ridiculously high prices for her that she alone will bring all the income. We'll start over, Goyle, open a new brothel and hide it under a respectable façade. We'll keep the registry with the clients and bring the old friends back in. We'll let them know that we are back in business."

"But what if she talks and tells them who she is… I'm sure the clients won't think twice about selling the information to Potter," reasoned Goyle, fear in his voice, "think about it, Nott. This is a stupid idea…"

"A Memory Charm will do the trick," he replied dismissively, "a new name, a new identity. I've always wanted a daughter." He wetted his lips as he stared at her. "And she'll be in my bed every night, right after she had earned her living like a respectable, little whore." He brought his hands to his belt, unbuckling it slowly. "In fact I think I shall start training her tonight," he said, fishing out his member from his underwear and starting to stroke it. "You're welcome to watch, Goyle," he added as he made his way to the bed, climbing on near her, "and I'm willing to share, but only after I've used her thoroughly." He smirked and added, "And after I've filled this place with her screams."

He pushed her legs apart and knelt between them, before finally deciding that he wanted her awake and aware.

And Lily screamed. She screamed so loud that Nott had to take away her memory half way through the night and gag her before she deafened him with her silly cries for Mummy and Daddy.

And once he was done with the child he finally let Goyle have her, and he watched and got excited again as his business partner raped her too.

And then he thought about Potter and couldn't help smirking in satisfaction.

Theodore Nott's vendetta was going to be a masterpiece of cruelty.

ooo

**Still No Sign of the Head Auror's Only Daughter**

_A month has passed since the disappearance of the only daughter of Head Auror Harry James Potter and there is still no sign of the little girl. Thousands of owls arrived at the Ministry in the past thirty days, both with supportive letters addressed to Mr and Mrs Potter, and with reports of sightings of the girl all over the United Kingdom. Any lead followed by the Aurors up to this point, though, had resulted being a dead end. Aurors are still prone to believe that the most plausible theory is that of a personal vendetta towards the Head Auror, but investigations about a newly formed group of Death Eater sympathizers are underway as well._

_As always, we ask to direct your letters with any information you might have to the Ministry of Magic._

ooo

**Possible Lead on the Potter Disappearance is Another Dead End**

_The body of the little girl that had been found two days ago is not the one of Lily Luna Potter as it had been first believed by the authorities. The macabre discovery had been made by an employee of the Ministry in a side street of Knockturn Alley. The body of the child, torn by what were very probably the claws of a werewolf, had taken two days to be recognised. She was a Muggleborn girl who had gotten lost in Knockturn Alley, unsupervised on her first expedition to buy her school supplies. Miss Potter would have started her first year at Hogwarts this year as well. For a picture about how she would be looking today, please look inside today's issue._

ooo

**The European Trail**

_After three months following a trail around Europe, the Auror squad captained by Auror Edward Remus Lupin had to return to England empty-handed. The operation, which had started when a traffic of witches aged ten to fifteen years old had been discovered throughout France, Spain and England, had not brought to the finding of Auror Potter's daughter nor of any other English young witch. Details on the operation can be found inside, at page 18. Lily Luna Potter would have turned thirteen two weeks ago._

ooo

**Anniversary of a Tragedy**

_Today occurs the anniversary of Head Auror Harry James Potter's only daughter's disappearance. Despite having been six years since that fateful day, the Head Auror and his squad – especially Deputy Head Auror Ronald Bilius Weasley, uncle to the little girl – had never stopped looking for her. Leads that might have brought Lily Potter – today aged fifteen – had become sparser through the years, though, and insiders had said that we are to expect a memorial service to be held soon in memory of the girl._

_The Daily Prophet is close to the Head Auror and his family._


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:** Well, well, well... The response to my first chapter was overwhelming... Okay, sarcasm apart, I'd like to know something. My first stories - written in a language that I claimed to be English, but that it was closer to Rubbishenglish - used to receive tons of reviews from the very first chapter. What's happening? The better I write the less reviews I receive. Why is that? Someone needs to shed a light here.. (with this I don't mean, this is bloody fantastic, but rather this is ten million times better than my earlier stories). This is Chapter One, since the first one was the Prologue. By the way, updates will come every Saturday - unless differently stated - so if you ask for quicker updates it means that you don't read my author's notes, and you should read my author's notes, they are hilarious! I might updated twice a week, if I get like a zillion comments.. And we ALL know that that's going to happen... Oh well, enjoy... review!

* * *

**Chapter One**

The sluggish movement of the Hogwarts Express made Scorpius Malfoy sleepy. So sleepy that he could feel his eyelids flutter and his head mill lazily with the motion.

And then there was the voice. _Her_ voice. It wasn't a nasty voice, nor it was too harsh or loud. And that was exactly the problem. It was soft and sweet and boring and it didn't help Scorpius one bit. He let his body be cradled by the movement of the train and started to gently loll, bumping softly into Ursula Zabini without even trying to mumble an apology, after all she didn't seem to mind too much about his closeness.

"Malfoy! Are you even listening to me?"

He groaned inwardly and raised his eyes on the only girl standing in the whole compartment. Her bushy red hair was swaying in time with the movement of the Hogwarts Express and she had a hand clutched tightly around a handle spurting from one of the seats.

"Of course I'm listening, Weasley," he grunted, crossing his arms and darkening. He could feel the eyes of all the other Prefects gaping at him. Some of them were probably sniggering at the fact that he had been caught spacing out by the Head Girl. _Again_.

"Well," she said, pursing her lips in a haughty gesture. "What was I saying?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. It was his third year as Prefect, and even though Rose Weasley had been made Head Girl only that year, she had already given more speeches and summoned more meetings than Scorpius could ever remember doing in the past two years all together.

That day was not different. They had just had the time to climb onto the train home for the Christmas holidays when she had gathered them all in the Prefect wagon and started talking endlessly about… _something_. And that idiot of Emeric Zabini had not even tried to stop her. Au contraire, he seemed to hang off her words as if she actually were _interesting_. But of course, the Head Boy had the most ridiculous crush on the Head Girl and Scorpius suspected that Weasley knew it perfectly well and took advantage of that to schedule long and boring meetings without him to stop her.

"Well?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

He sighed. "You were pairing up people for the train patrol…?" he said, trying not to make it sound like a question, even if his voice raised imperceptibly at the end of the sentence.

She narrowed her eyes. "And who are you paired up with?"

Well, at least he had guessed correctly. Not that he had too many alternatives, really. What would she blabber about anyway? Homework? Like she could give them homework. She couldn't… _right_?

He tried to look around himself. Had McGonagall not insisted on her silly House Unity policy and her friendly student exchanges between Houses, he would have replied Alice Belby, his fellow Slytherin Prefect from his own year. But naturally, since being paired up with someone from the same house was out of the question it could honestly be just bloody anybody. He just hoped it wasn't going to be some fifth year like Weasley's brother.

His eyes travelled through the motley crowd of people who were all waiting expectantly for him as if a wrong answer would have led the Head Girl to give vent to all her disappointment and start with another speech on the importance of paying attention.

He rolled his eyes again and finally saw someone make a little movement with his hands, his index finger pointed subtly at himself. He raised his eyes only to let out a groan as he stared at Albus Potter's face.

"Potter," he muttered with a sigh.

Weasley flared her nostrils. "Right," she replied, finally taking her eyes away from him. "As I was saying, the partner that we've paired you up with to patrol today will be the same for the journey back to school after the holidays. Now, you may go and remember the carriages that you've been assigned and the times of your patrol."

The crowd let out a chorus of murmurs more or less of agreement, and finally people started to stand up and get going.

"Malfoy," said Weasley, coming to stand in front of him. "You were spacing out again." Again, he couldn't help noticing that she had an odd tone of voice, she was not exactly severe, she was kind of sweet still, but as if she were trying really hard to sound stern.

He rolled his eyes as he stood up. "Give it a rest, Weasley," he grunted, "you're Head Girl, you're not Minister for Magic, yet."

She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. "I don't want to become Minister for Magic, I will apply to be an Auror next year," she let him know as he walked past her.

He snorted lightly, swallowing the words that he wanted to retort. The last time he had told James Potter that everybody in his family wanted to be an Auror only to try to find his little sister, who was definitely already dead, he had woken up in the infirmary with Madam Pomfrey scowling him as she pretended to heal his broken nose when she was actually manhandling him and enjoying it immensely.

She had healed him in the end, though.

He hurried out of the compartment and tried to look for Albus Potter, and surely enough there he was, talking to his impossibly tall cousin and nodding and ruffling up his unruly hair every few seconds in an almost infuriating way.

"Potter," he called him as he pushed some first years out of the way in a very un-Prefect way.

Potter took a deep breath and glanced at him sideways. "I didn't do it for you," he said as Scorpius approached him, "I did it for me. If my cousin was to know that you were not listening to her for the umpteenth time she would have started lecturing us all on the importance of following directions and being awake during those meetings."

Scorpius nodded curtly, relieved that he didn't have to thank him. "I… can you fill me in with the times and the carriages for our patrol?" he asked stiffly.

Potter rolled his eyes. "She's right though," he replied, "you never ever listen."

"Yeah," he replied curtly, "she's just too boring." He darkened when Hugo Weasley glared at him. "Just tell me the times and carriages and I'll meet you there."

Potter told him anything he needed to know and even settled the place and time where to meet him, probably just to see him gone on his way. And Scorpius was just glad to do it.

He walked through the train, looking into each and every single compartment to try to find someone he knew and wanted to sit with. Unluckily, the two things were not the same.

Finally he found the Head Boy sitting in an empty compartment all by himself, a leather-covered book in his hands. He suspected he was waiting for the Head Girl, and the temptation to ruin his plans to be alone with her was too good to resist, so he opened the door and walked inside.

"What do you think your father would say if he knew you were drooling over a Weasley?" he sneered as he plummeted down on a seat.

Emeric looked up from his book to glare at him. "Nothing," he said lightly, "he stopped saying something when I was sorted into Ravenclaw."

Scorpius snorted. "Thank you for pairing me with Potter, by the way," he hissed, "how did you know that's exactly who I wanted as a patrol partner?"

"I didn't," he replied indignantly, "Rose did. She noticed that you've never been paired up in two and a half years." His lips turned up into a quick smile and he added, "She's clever…"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he replied curtly, before leaning his head against the window and looking at the snow-covered landscape rolling outside.

"Has your father shed any more light on the present he plans to give you for Christmas?" asked Emeric as he took out a quill and started to write something on the book, a content, almost dreamy, smile on his lips.

Scorpius looked at him darkly. "No, but knowing my father it might not be a new broom."

His father had spent the past two weeks writing to him about a present he would have given him on Boxing Day. He sounded almost excited in his letters, and somehow when he was excited it was always about something that Scorpius didn't particularly like. Like a pet snake or a walking stick with the Malfoy crest engraved in silver on it.

But he wouldn't shed any light this time, and Scorpius just had to wait and see.

ooo

"You are late, Malfoy." Potter's tone was annoyed. "Do you not know that my cousin checks on us as we check on the students?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that day, wondering idly if they were going to roll off their sockets by the end of the day. "Well, your cousin is a control freak," he replied hotly, "and I am only five minutes late." He darkened and added, "Let's go."

Potter snorted softly as he followed him. But the train was mostly quiet and all they had to do was confiscate a Fanged Frisbee and some Dungbombs from a third year.

"You know that our job would be much easier if your uncle hadn't opened another shop in Hogsmeade, right?" he asked darkly.

To his surprise Potter nodded. "I know," he said lightly, "but that would take all the fun out of patrol, wouldn't it?"

Ron closed his hand on Harry's shoulder and to his dismay the Head Auror startled and snapped his head off the desk, his eyes opening wide.

ooo

"I'm sorry," murmured Ron gently, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Harry took off his glasses to clean them on his sleeve and shook his head. "No," he replied, "thank you for waking me up. Ginny would have hexed me if I stayed the night here another time because I fell asleep in my office again."

Ron nodded as he peered over his desk. A brochure from a funeral parlour lay open in front of him.

"Harry," said Ron, a knot in his throat, "you shouldn't look at these things."

He placed the glasses back on his nose and nodded. "I know," he replied, before taking a deep breath. "I just thought… for Ginny and the boys, you know, to give them some kind of closure…" His green eyes shone bright with tears.

"She's not dead," he said softly, "remember? We don't think these things." He swallowed and knew that he was lying. He had been thought those things for years now.

Harry nodded, his fingers brushing away the tears that he was about to shed. "I know," he replied, "thank you, Ron."

Ron nodded. "Let's go," he said, waiting for him to stand up. "Let's go home."

ooo

Money was flowing like never before.

Of course, after the shutting down of all the whorehouse in England – thanks to Head Auror Harry James Potter – Nott's idea of opening a brothel right under a fake law firm that sported his and Goyle's name had been a winning one.

And his idea of offering Potter's precious, little flower to the clients had been genius.

He didn't know if the men who asked for her knew her real identity, but it didn't matter. They certainly seemed to enjoy her and that was what was important. A satisfied client wouldn't have gone to the Ministry to tell them that she was there. No matter how much money Potter offered that month for information.

And, most importantly, he enjoyed her too. Every night. Every way he wanted.

ooo

Nott was checking the registries for that night when she knocked on the door.

"Come in," he said calmly.

The door opened and her bare feet made no sound on the floor. He knew she was inside only because she had closed the door at her back with a soft click.

He didn't look up from the registries when she came to stand near his desk. He could see out of the corner of his eye her white dress – a uniform that mocked her non-existing purity – flutter slightly.

"Are you done for the night, Scarlet?" he asked, dunking the quill into an ink bottle and tapping it gently against the rim.

"Yes, Father," she replied softly and politely, just like he liked it.

He copied some numbers – payments due that month – and quirked his lip upwards. "Are you tired?"

He could almost hear her swallowing. "Yes, Father," she replied faintly.

He placed the quill on his desk and closed the registry, finally looking at her.

She was a sight to behold. The most gorgeous creature he had ever laid his eyes upon.

Nott knew that some of her loveliness came from the fact that her stupid, little house-elf took care of her and her beauty as if her life depended on it. And it did, really. He didn't spare death threats to the creature when necessary.

To top that, there were the other prostitutes. He wanted them to wash her and brush her hair every day, and beautify her before every night of hard work. And even though most of them couldn't stand the fact that she was the most beautiful, the most expensive and Nott's favourite, he made sure that they all treated her with respect. In front of him at least, what they did behind his back was not his business after all, and all he required was for them to not leave marks on her precious skin. Not that he had to worry too much, since he knew that women liked to use words to hurt each other rather than knives, but they had nails, and some of them were as sharp as little needles.

Most of her beauty though, came from her family. Nott could remember her mother at Hogwarts and Ginny Weasley had definitely been one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. And now that he was in his forty he could appreciate beauty even more, and the fifteen-year-old girl in front of him was a vision. She was rather short, but perfectly built, her long, red hair, that he had never let her cut through the years, reached the small of her back and he just loved to roll it around his hand when he took her from behind. Her brown eyes, rich and deep like chocolate, looked at him in fear and awe and he delighted in that.

He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "You are always tired, Scarlet," he said, a smirk stretching his lips, "I wonder what you do all day long that you can't reach the end of the night without complaining."

She lowered her eyes, her flushed cheeks letting him know that she was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Father," she whispered.

"Shall I confine you to our room throughout the day?" he asked, sneering in anticipation.

Her eyes snapped up, fear washing over her features. "No," she said loudly, before adding in a whisper, "Please, Father…"

He studied her face for a long moment before murmuring, "My little Scarlet wants to be free to roam for the house and curl herself up in a corner with a book in her lap where nobody can find her, am I right?"

She looked truly abashed as she nodded. "Yes, please, Father…"

He pursed his lips and brought his long fingers in front of his mouth. "Are you tired, Scarlet?" he asked again.

"No," she replied, her voice throaty.

He nodded as he picked up the quill again and opened a drawer to put it away. "Then undress and get on the bed," he ordered her. "On your back first, I want to look into your eyes, tonight."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: **Aww, you do read these author's notes, don't you? Thank you! That makes my day! I love when people read my author's notes! Riight, that said, I promised myself to reply to each and every single one of the reviews I was going to get for this story - something that I usually never do (not because I'm a horrible person, but because I don't want to disturb you!) - but many of you are guests reviewers so I can't reply directly to you. So, well, guys, thank you for your wonderful words, you are all very supportive of this story and you make my day every time you drop me a line to tell me what you think of this fanfiction! Also... many of you (right, when I say "many" I mean four or five people, and I am referring to both this website and AO3, and to reviews and PM's), asked for some steamy sex scenes. To be honest, I hate to write sex scenes - they give me a headache because I always end up writing 5,000 just to describe da sex (I am very detailed, too much probably) - that said of course there'll be some sex scenes in this story, but I've tried something new this time: I made them shorter, rawer and more to the point. Another thing you should NOT expect is Scarlet/clients sex scenes. Hope you weren't hoping for some of those! In case you were, sorry for that. Right, now you can go and read the chapter. Go, go! Hurry! And enjoy, and if you feel like it, maybe... I don't know... review it?

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Despite having lived at the Manor all his life, Scorpius could never get accustomed to the frostiness of its immense rooms and halls. Especially in wintertime when the snow outside seemed to cover the Wiltshire countryside under a white blanket, and ice would form on the glass of the tall windows.

But complaining about the temperature was not considered proper behaviour for a Malfoy. Not by his father at least, his mother never missed a chance to point out how the cold would penetrate inside her bones and make her ache.

But now that Scorpius was of age he could at least cast a Heating Charm on himself without so much as blinking. Not that he wouldn't do that even before he had turned seventeen; in fact his father always encouraged him to use magic when he was home for the holidays, and even before he had started at Hogwarts for that matter.

Yes, it was illegal, but his mother was the only one who complained about it in that Manor and his father always reprimanded her, saying that she couldn't understand because she was not a _real_ Malfoy.

And that quietened every complain she might have had and made her leave the room. Fuming.

And his father would just glare at her fluttering dress as she stormed away, while Scorpius could only stare at his parents as they drifted coldly away from each other.

ooo

"Who is Father talking to?"

His mother looked up from the book she had in her lap. Her little, delicate feet stirred near the crackling fire in the hearth.

"An old friend of his," she replied vaguely, "from back at school."

Scorpius craned his neck to peer through the door that from the drawing room led to the hallway. The man his father was talking to was tall and solidly built. He had dark hair and very white skin as if he rarely saw the light of day. His hands, peering from under his cloak, seemed huge and were as pale as his face, and they were in stark contrast with the darkness of his clothes.

The man nodded and smirked every now and then. He seemed to listen carefully to his father, and his father looked very pleased about something.

When Draco nodded towards the drawing room, the man turned his head towards Scorpius, and Scorpius' eyes met his dark and cold ones.

Scorpius looked immediately away, caught staring and feeling his cheeks warming up in embarrassment.

"Scorpius," his father called him, his voice calm, "come."

Scorpius glanced at his mother as he made his way towards the hallway. She looked back at him with severe eyes, expecting Merlin knows what. He walked to where the men were standing and looked at his father's old friend, trying hard to hold his stare.

"Scorpius," said his father, curling a hand over his shoulder, "this is Theodore Nott, an old friend of mine."

"It's a pleasure, Sir," he said, stretching a hand to him.

Mr Nott's lips curled into a soft smile that looked more like a smirk. "Pleasure is all mine, young Malfoy," he said, shaking Scorpius' hand.

Scorpius nodded, unsure of what to say next. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything at all because at that moment Mr Nott's eyes returned to his father and he tilted his head lightly. "So I shall expect him on Boxing Day," he said, "eleven in the evening, if he's late he won't be given any extra time after the two hours you've booked."

"Obviously," replied his father calmly. "Have a happy Christmas Nott."

He smirked at that. "You too, Malfoy." He nodded softly at Scorpius and walked towards the door where a house-elf hurried to open it for him.

When the door closed and the elf squealed and disappeared, Scorpius finally turned his head towards his father. "What was that all about?" he asked, gaping at him.

"Your present," replied his father, as he walked towards the stairs.

"My present?" he asked unsurely.

His father nodded without even looking at him, his hand already on the railing as he started to walk back to his study. He stopped only for the briefest moment when his mother appeared on the door of the drawing room, eyes bright and stormy with rage. He looked back at her for a fistful of seconds before he kept climbing up the stairs in the eerie stillness of the Manor.

ooo

The clatter of the cutlery was so loud in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place that Albus felt the urge to say something – anything to break the uncomfortable silence.

"I had to patrol with Malfoy on the ride home, did I tell you?" he said, cleaning his mouth in a napkin and sipping some pumpkin juice from his glass.

His father chuckled softly. "Have you done something to Rosie?"

"I don't think so," he replied thoughtfully, "not that I'm aware of anyway." He sighed almost dramatically. "She's a control freak though, Malfoy is right…"

His mother looked up from the almost untouched plate in front of her. That was one of the times of year when she sunk into the deepest pits of despair. Lily's birthday. The anniversary of her kidnapping. _Christmas_.

Lily used to love Christmas. She always woke up first, and Albus' heart clenched at the thought that he always pushed her off his bed and told her to get lost when she burst into his room screaming that there were presents under the tree and to come downstairs to open them with her. Every Christmas ever since her disappearance, he would wake up at dawn and wait for her to open his door, but it never happened.

"Aunt Hermione was just like that," said his mother softly. She always spoke softly lately. "But patrol had never run more swiftly than when she was in charge." She smiled as she poked some peas with her fork.

Albus nodded, knowing full well that Rose had definitely not taken after Uncle Ron when organizational skills were involved. "When is James coming home?"

"He's not coming home," replied his father, "he'll meet us at the Burrow on Christmas day. He lives with Bran and John now."

"Did they all apply to be Aurors?"

His father nodded, before looking at his mother. "Ginny," he said softly, "eat."

Albus could see her bottom lip quiver as she shook her head and stood up, grabbing her plate she placed it in the sink and walked out of the kitchen, leaving them there alone.

His father took a deep breath. "I was thinking about a memorial," he said calmly, "on Lily's birthday."

Albus looked at him, his heart skipped a beat as he understood why his mother had looked so miserable. "Dad," he said, his voice thick with emotion, "she's not…"

His father shook his head. "I don't know anymore, Al," he whispered, before standing up and going after his mother.

ooo

"Ginny, we need to talk about it." Harry's voice was calm and soothing, the tone he knew his wife would need to calm down.

"No!" she cried. "No! You… you're losing hope." She shook her head and collapsed on the armchair in their room. "She's still alive, I know it… a mother can feel these things!" She clasped her hands around the picture of Lily that they kept on her bedside table. Their little angel, and sometimes Harry wondered how true that expression was and if she was really looking at them from high above. In the photo she was grinning at Uncle Ron, the one who had taken the picture. She was standing in her shorts and tee-shirt in front of the Burrow, flaming hair flapping in the wind and toes curling in the grass, waiting impatiently for the picture to be taken before she could dash away to play with Hugo again.

Harry sat on the bed in front of her. "Ginny, it's been six years."

"No, Harry!" she sobbed. "No! You said that until there isn't a body she can be alive, you said it!"

His shoulders slumped forward. "She could also be dead."

"No!" she cried, tears spilling over the corners of her eyes. "No! Don't say it!" She buried her face in one hand the other still grasping the picture, and started shaking with sobs.

He stood from the bed and knelt next to her, placing two fingers under her chin he raised her face to make her look at him and brushed away her tears. "Of course she's alive," he murmured softly, "and we will find her. I promise you." It hurt him to lie to his wife, but she didn't need to hear the truth at that moment.

She shook her head, tears threatening to spill once again. "I don't want a memorial for my daughter," she sobbed. "Never, never… Not even in fifty years, I will never lose hope."

Harry nodded sadly at her words, wondering deep down if it wouldn't be better if she did lose hope.

ooo

Scorpius was sure that other people had different kind of Christmas celebrations. Christmas at the Manor meant dressing up in some bloody fancy dress just for the three of them and get bored out of one's wits. There was a time when his grandparents would be there and sometimes even Aunt Daphne with his cousins and his other set of grandparents. But lately it had been always just the three of them, exchanging expensive gifts and sitting at the dinner table in silence for hours, eating lavish dishes and drinking his father's wine.

That Christmas, Mother had gotten him new cufflinks. He had gotten her a new dress from Paris. His father had smiled at their exchange, and his mother had looked at him warily. Then he had given her his present, a ruby necklace that let Scorpius know that he needed her to forgive him something. She smiled and asked him to help her wear it, but when his father's hands slid on her back she moved away as if she couldn't stand his touch.

It was late that afternoon when his father finally gave him an envelope.

"Happy Christmas, Scorpius," he said calmly, leaning his elbows on the armrests and crossing his fingers in front of his lips.

Scorpius stared at the envelope where his name written was written in his father's elegant writing for a long moment. Well, that certainly wasn't a new broom, but at least it wasn't a walking stick either. "Thank you, Father," he replied as he finally opened it.

Inside there was a light blue business card that sported the name Nott & Goyle ltd.

And nothing else.

Scorpius turned it over, but there was nothing on the other side. He stared at it, waiting for something to happen, but nothing changed.

He raised his eyes on his father and he just smirked at him. "Turn it over," he said calmly, "three times."

Scorpius frowned slightly, but did as he was told. He turned the card over three times and stared. Suddenly, the elaborated font of the name vibrated and shrunk until it disappeared completely. Little drops of what looked like blood started to drip from the top of the card and they disappeared once they reached the bottom, covering the card in crimson. Scorpius let the card fall in his lap, disgusted and afraid to soil his fingers.

His father chuckled softly, probably at his reaction. "Look on the back," he said quietly.

He wrinkled his nose as he turned the card over and finally furrowed his brow. There was his name there, followed by tomorrow's date and a number – eleven – and at the bottom there was a single word.

_Scarlet_.

He tried to think hard what that might mean. The card had turned scarlet, did that mean something in particular? It looked like he had some kind of appointment. Appointment for what?

"I've noticed that you never talk about girls, Scorpius," his father said, voice calm and measured. "Do you find them attractive at all?"

Scorpius' head snapped up to look at his father. He was looking back at him seriously. "Of course I do," he replied sharply. And the last thing he wanted was to talk about girls with his father.

"I'm glad to hear that," he continued, "because you are my only heir, and one day – in a not too distant future – you'll have to keep the Malfoy line alive."

He swallowed and furrowed his brow. How was that anywhere near related to the card he had in his hands?

"Correct your father if he is wrong," he continued, "but you've never been with a woman."

Scorpius could feel his cheeks burn like fire. How dared his father, the man who didn't even know the name of his friends or what classes he was taking in his last year at Hogwarts, ask him such a personal question? And of course, he wouldn't be that embarrassed if the answer had been yes, but since at seventeen he was still… inexperienced, the shame burned even hotter.

He could feel both his parents' stares directed at him, waiting expectantly for his reply. He glanced at his mother and saw that she was looking at him sternly as if whatever the answer to that she would have been disappointed. His father sported the same soft smirk that he had had ever since he had given him the envelope.

"Am I wrong?" he asked softly.

Scorpius gritted his teeth so forcefully he could hear his jaw pop. "No, Father," he growled. "But how do you—"

"It's not important." He smirked satisfied. "Good," he replied, "then my present will be beautifully timed."

Scorpius lowered his narrowed eyes on the card again to try to understand what his father was talking about. He read the card another time and moved his lips slightly as he reached the last word. _Scarlet_.

"That's her name," said his father, nodding softly, "the most expensive prostitute in Nott's whorehouse. But Theodore is an old friend, he gave me a good discount. Two hours at the price of one." His smirk faltered slightly as he added, "Still bloody expensive, but he said she's worth it."

Scorpius' eyes widened slightly. _A prostitute_? His father had booked him two hours with a prostitute as a Christmas present? No wonder he had to go overboard with his mother's present. No wonder his mother was seething. He clasped his hands around the edges of the card, denting it a little, and set his jaw.

He wasn't sure he wanted that present. It wasn't because he considered it degrading for a woman to sell her body or any other Gryffindor chivalry that one might think, no, it was because that was not how he had envisioned losing his virginity. Which was stupid really and a rather girly idea, but he felt sick at the thought that his father had to pay someone for his first time. As if he couldn't find anybody who would shag him for free.

And to top that, weren't whorehouses illegal? He remembered something happened the year before he started at Hogwarts, something that had to do with Harry Potter because his face had been on the Prophet every day that year. Surely his mother was worried about his safety as well. Surely he would have been arrested if someone knew.

"Father, I…"

"No need to thank me, Scorpius," he replied placidly. "Now listen carefully, because Nott had given me strict instructions on the way one enters their building." He nodded towards the card in his hand. "That's your ticket," he continued, "and when you walk in their hall…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Okay, okay, okay... you win! Even though I haven't gotten my zillion reviews (but still only a fistful of them), I will update twice a week starting from the upcoming week. So expect updates every Wednesday and every Saturday. You could leave me a note to thank me... A little one... A small, little review that says "Thank you for updating twice a week, Ely, I looooooooove your story..." No? Not even a little, small, sweet, cute, heart-warming comment? Pretty pleeeeeease! *sobs* Aaaaanyway, I am doing this because I finished writing the story. 28 chapters in total, darlings! So get ready to have your heart carved out of your chest and then handed it back to you - maybe. Hopefully, emotions will be strong. Ah, and I have a question, how does the name _Viridina_ sound to you? Cause to me it sounds quite cute and funny, but I read it the Italian way (Veereedeena), you? How would you read it? I invented it, if you really want to know... :D By the way, I love this chapter to bits, and therefore if you don't like it/it's not what you expected/hate it then you should stop reading this story. Go away! Shoo! Me doesn't care... 0.o Nooo! I was joking... don't go... I need you... [And now don't tell me that my whimsical author's notes don't make you laugh..]

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Nott & Goyle ltd. was situated at the ground floor of an immense building and, from what his father had told Scorpius, in the basement as well. Well, he had used the word _dungeons_, but Scorpius imagined that they had more than just chains and cold, rock-walled cells in there.

The building was a baroque style construction, old and magnificent, with elaborate details on the façade, doors with golden handles, and immense windows that showed the halls inside to the people outside. As if they had no secrets.

The wicked thing, though, was that the place was located between Whitehall and Charing Cross, deep in Muggle London, of course, but dangerously close to both the Ministry and Diagon Alley. As if they were trying to challenge the authorities. As if they thought that the best way to hide their true business was in the light of the sun.

Surely the Ministry must have come round for routine inspections. He wondered if nobody suspected anything at all, or if maybe someone had been corrupted by Mr Nott to keep his mouth shut. That would almost be more probable than if they hadn't.

It was late as Scorpius made his way up the steps that led to the glass, main door, but the offices inside were bustling with life: people in Muggle outfits were working as if it was afternoon and not night, running here and there with papers in their hands, and using Muggle artefacts that showed images and graphs and texts.

Nobody seemed to pay attention to him as he walked inside, though.

It was only as he made his way towards the information desk that a young woman bumped into him and squeaked and bowed and started to slap herself as if to punish herself, thus finally acknowledging his presence.

He wrinkled his nose at her behaviour and, without excusing himself, he kept walking towards the information desk, flipping the card in his hand three times as he had been told by his father.

The woman at the information desk looked busy talking to someone, a bright smile plastered on her lips as she nodded and looked in front of her with wide eyes. There was nobody there, though, but she seemed to be communicating in some kind of Muggle contraption hanging from her ear.

Conveniently, when he stopped in front of her, she raised her big, attentive eyes on his face and smiled. "Welcome to Nott & Goyle ltd.," she said to him, her voice cheerful and polite. "How may I help you?"

He swallowed and darkened as he showed her the card without saying one word.

"Of course, Sir," she replied gently. She kept her eyes on him and her smile widened as the wall to her left shook slightly and the silhouette of a door appeared on the immaculate white plaster.

Scorpius glanced at the door, before looking back at the witch. She kept smiling and her head bobbed up and down almost imperceptibly as if to encourage him to walk through it.

He took a deep breath as he stared at the entry way and started to walk towards it, glancing back at the witch every now and then only to notice that she was still nodding and smiling at him.

He swallowed again as he pushed the door open and walked inside, plummeting into darkness. The door closed at his back, and as soon as the echo of its lock catching died around Scorpius, a row of lamps sparkled to life on the wall, lightening a narrow staircase that went down into the depths of the building. The stone walls looked almost wet as he descended, while his steps and the flicker of the lamps were the only sounds he could hear.

He felt like he had walked for minutes when he finally reached the bottom, only to turn his head up and notice that the beginning of the staircase was merely a few steps above him. He turned again and found his path barred by a thick curtain. It was soft and heavy as he grabbed it and pulled it open and when he did, the lamps on the staircase died out suddenly and he was enveloped by a sweet, exotic music and a myriad of colours and scents.

He found himself in a circular room. Doors opened everywhere, and between them there were mirrors and tapestries and paintings and vases filled with flowers. The floor was covered in colourful carpets and Scorpius had to steady himself against a wall as he stepped on them. They were thick and soft and made him feel wobbly.

The paintings and the tapestries showed wizards and witches busy kissing or having intercourse in the most inventive ways Scorpius had ever seen, and he had to swallow as he felt his member twitching slightly between his legs just by looking at them.

"Good evening, Sir," said a deep voice at his left.

He turned to find a counter and a tall, young-looking wizard behind it. He was wearing dress robes, he was handsome and elegant, his long, dark hair was tied with a bow at the base of his neck and he had a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Good evening," replied Scorpius softly as he made his way to him.

"May I see your card, Sir?"

He nodded and handed him the card in his hand. The man smiled as he made sure that everything was in order.

"Very well, Sir," he said, placing the card in front of him on the counter and opening a big, heavy book. "I'm afraid you are slightly early," he said, "and she will not be available until the clock strikes at eleven." He raised his eyes and smiled at him. "But you are welcome to wait in the room we've prepared for you." He drew out his wand and touched a button on the desk as he talked, "Food and drinks are included, and so is our selection of music, and you can browse our menu and start booking for another appointment at any time."

One of the doors burst open and a girl with bright green eyes and curly jet-black hair walked into the room. Her tanned skin was in stark contrast with the white of her ankle-length dress. She had a green, satin ribbon under her breasts, showing off her curves, while her arms were naked just like her feet. She didn't have any jewels nor makeup, or at least, not as much as Scorpius had expected.

She was quite beautiful.

"Do I already have another client?" she asked as she walked to the counter. Her tone was rather impertinent as if she wasn't intimidated by the man there nor by the fact that there was a client in the room.

The wizard shot her a glare. "No, Lulu," he replied, "Mister Malfoy is not your client."

Lulu looked at Scorpius from head to toe, wetting her lips and with her eyes sparkling, and for a moment Scorpius felt like _he_ was the whore. "Too bad," she murmured huskily, "so young and handsome." She perched herself over the counter, her breasts pushing against the wizard's hand. Malice painted over her face as she read the card. "And rich too, apparently," she continued. "Of course," she almost hissed now, "_she_ always gets the best ones."

"Lulu," hissed the wizard back, "shall I report your impertinence to Mister Nott?"

The girl rolled her eyes and sneered. "As if you would, Charles," she replied, "I know I'm your favourite." Her hand slid under the counter, but Charles grabbed it before she could touch him.

"You're not my favourite," he hissed, "your are the only one I can afford. You know perfectly well who I want."

She glared at him and jerked her hand free of his fingers.

The wizard looked back at Scorpius, a soft, languid smile on his face. "I'm sorry for that, Sir," he said calmly, "Miss Lulu will take you to your room." He wrote a number and gave it to Scorpius. "Room fifteen. I hope she'll be of your liking."

Scorpius nodded and turned towards the girl, who looked at him like a lion would do with a gazelle and turned on her heels. He followed her through one of the doors and some more lamps flickered to life as they stepped into a long corridor.

They walked for quite some time in silence, until the girl didn't seem able to keep quiet anymore. "I don't know what people find in her, you know," she said spitefully, "she walks around the house like she owns it. Just because she's the boss' favourite."

Scorpius didn't reply.

"She's pretty, that I'll give her," continued the girl with a snort, "we always try to touch her when we bathe her. Because she can't even bathe herself."

Scorpius swallowed again, what kind of girl has his father reserved for him? Someone who was mentally challenged?

"And when we feel like it, we hex her," said the girl, "but we can't leave marks, otherwise the boss will punish us in the playroom." She let out a mirthless laughter. "Which can actually be fun sometimes."

She stopped in front of a door that sported the number fifteen in golden numbers. "Here you go," she said, gesturing towards the door.

"Thank you," said Scorpius stiffly, walking past her.

Her hand was on his shoulder before he could reach for the handle though. "By the way," she whispered in his ear, "she always cries when you take her in the arse." She giggled. "Just a suggestion if you like that kind of things," she added, before walking away and leaving him there dumbstruck. He didn't know if she meant that he should like anal sex or seeing a girl crying. He didn't know about anal, but certainly he didn't like a girl crying. Especially not during sex.

He pushed the door open and walked inside.

The room was flamboyant. There was a richly decorated four-poster bed in the middle, two rococo armchairs in a corner and a small round table between them. There was a door that opened on a bathroom on the other side of the room and no windows. Of course. They were underground. The walls were covered in dark crimson textiles, the same colour of the covers on the bed and the armchairs. The wooden columns of the four-poster bed were painted in gold and had flowers engraved on them. There was no fireplace, but candles were lit everywhere and some of them were floating around the room.

He closed the door and walked towards the little table. There was a book with the word 'Menu' in golden letters on the cover, and another that said 'Food and Drinks'. Next to them, there was a brochure with music, and temperature, and scents and the correct spells to perform to change them in the room and adjust to one's pleasure.

He opened the 'Food and Drink' book and found pictures of delicious meals and alcoholic drinks and the correct number next to each of them in case he wanted to order to a house-elf. There were oysters, lobsters, strawberries and chocolate, caviar, truffles, and many other foods that Scorpius had never even heard of, and then there were whiskeys, wines and liquors, both Muggle and Wizard made.

He closed the book and placed it back down. His stomach was in knots anyway, he wouldn't have been able to eat anything without vomiting on the girl. He felt his heart beating a bit faster as he thought about her. He didn't even know what she looked like, but if she were the most expensive there, surely she would have been beautiful.

He gnawed on his bottom lip as he prayed to be able to fuck her. Maybe he would have laid down on the bed and let her do everything. He just needed to be inside of her and then he would have been okay, he would have reached his father's aim: he wouldn't be a virgin anymore and then he could go back home without waiting for the two hours to be over. Or maybe he would have stayed there, ordered some food and ate. Maybe he could have talked to her, if she was fun to be around. He wondered how much she was paid for what she did. He wondered if maybe she was someone who had been at Hogwarts, maybe someone who had finished the past year or the year before.

He wondered how old she was and the fact that she might – well, that she surely was, honestly – older than him, made him a bit nervous. He had to sound like he knew what he was doing. But he doubted he would have been able to fool her when he came after two seconds of being inside of her. He was already half-hard for the way those portraits shagged in the round room.

He shook his head and opened the other book, the one labelled, 'Menu'.

It was not another food menu.

He gaped. On every page there was a picture of a girl, with a number at the bottom and a name. The girls were smiling, touching themselves, moaning, winking at him. Page after page, they seemed to try their best to attract his attention. There were thin and tiny girls, plump young women, short, tall, dark skinned or fair, beautiful and less beautiful. He reached the end of the book in a flash, enthralled by those bodies and trying to look for the one called Scarlet, and when he was about to turn to the last page, a knock on the door startled him.

The book fell on the floor with a thump and he hurried to pick it up and put it back on the table. "Come in," he said gruffly, giving his back to the door.

He could feel his heart beating furiously in his chest and in his temples. He almost didn't hear her steps as she walked in, but he heard the faint click of the door, and then he could somehow sense that she was standing behind him.

She didn't speak, he could barely hear her soft breathing as his heartbeat became less loud and furious.

He swallowed and felt his extremities numb a little as he turned to face her. To face the girl he would have to take to bed.

Scorpius turned and gaped.

He turned and felt his heart skipping a beat.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. _She was gorgeous_. Long, red hair that shone in the light of the candles, warm chocolaty eyes that lowered as soon as they met his grey ones, high cheekbones, ruby lips, a sprinkle of freckles on her face and her shoulders, milky skin that looked soft and smooth. She wore a long, white dress, sleeveless and plain, just like Lulu had, but the ribbon under her breasts was crimson. And to add to that she wore a round and heavy-looking ankle bracelet, golden and covered in engravings. Her ankles were small and her feet were thin. She was slim, but the dress showed and at the same time hid her curves perfectly well.

She was perfect.

No.

She was _divine_.

For a moment, as Scorpius looked at her with eyes wide and barely breathing, he almost cursed his father for having chosen the most beautiful creature he had ever seen for his first time. Now he knew he wouldn't have been able to last.

She kept her eyes to the floor, her lips slightly parted and her body still, probably waiting for him to give her directions on what to do.

But he didn't know. He had never done it, never had sex, never been with a prostitute. Never even seen someone like her.

And Merlin! She looked young! Younger than himself, but that, naturally, couldn't have been possible… she would have been underage if she were any younger than him. And that was illegal. Not that a whorehouse wasn't illegal, but that would have been a step too far.

And she looked slightly familiar. Not as if he had already seen her somewhere, but if he had seen someone who looked like her or a picture of her someplace one day and then he had forgotten.

_And she was beautiful_.

He just felt like he couldn't breathe as he looked at her. He suddenly felt a wave of nausea at the very thought of fucking her. No, a creature like her needed someone who made love to her, not some stranger who had paid to pleasure himself with her body.

Suddenly, he didn't want to touch her, afraid he would spoil her. Afraid he would soil her beauty.

He took a sharp breath and rushed past her, hurrying into the bathroom and slamming the door at his back. He placed one hand on the basin and turned on the tap, splashing his face with ice cold water.

He glanced at his upset face in the mirror and closed his eyes. How was he supposed to take her? _He didn't want to_. He wanted to kneel down next to her and adore her. He wanted to keep his eyes on her feet because her face was so beautiful it hurt him.

No, he couldn't have her. He couldn't. He would send her back and ask for another one. Or none at all. He would have asked for his father's money back and go spend it on something else. And then he would have pushed the ugly face of Ursula Zabini into the couch of the Slytherin Common Room as he took her from behind once back at school, and everybody would have been happy.

He grabbed a towel almost furiously and dried his face, before opening the door of the bathroom with fury and storming back into the room.

The girl had moved on the other side of the room, and her dress was a pool of white at her feet. She stood completely naked in front of him and Scorpius felt heat pooling in his lower abdomen.

Her eyes, her beautiful eyes, looked at him almost fearfully, as if she hadn't expected him to react that way to her.

He couldn't help looking down at the perfect swell of her breasts, at her flat abdomen where her ribs moved gently with her breathing, at the hairless mound of flesh between her creamy legs.

Merlin, he felt like he had died and gone to heaven!

He shook his head forcefully and looked back at her face.

"Who told you to get undressed?" he barked nervously, the words coming out way more sharply than he had intended.

Her bottom lip seemed to quiver as she opened her mouth to say something, but all she could muster was, "I… I…" and then she had to lower her eyes again, scared.

"Get dressed," he snapped at her.

She fell gracefully and silently to her knees and grabbed the dress from the floor, bringing it up to cover her front without wearing it. She looked at his feet, her lips parted as she breathed quickly.

"Get dressed, I said," he hissed, "you are going back."

She let out a soft whimper and suddenly she was looking back at his face again, her eyes two pools of misery. "Oh no, Sir," she choked out, "no, please, don't send me back." She let the dress fall again and soon she was grasping the material of his trousers around his knee.

He felt electricity going through him at the contact with her hand over his clothes.

"Please, Sir," she whimpered, "I'm good, I swear. Please, if you send me back I'll be punished. Please, Sir, I'll do anything you want me to do."

She tried to worm a hand between his legs, but he grabbed it and pushed it back. "Don't touch me," he snarled, afraid of the way his skin had covered in goose bumps with simply her touch. Afraid, the bulge in his trousers would show.

She let go of his leg and curled herself on the floor, letting him have a clear view of her perfect back and her round bottom as she shook with sobs.

He was a fool. He should take her right at that moment. He had paid for her and she was throwing herself at him, imploring him to fuck her, to do to her whatever he wanted.

_He was a fool_.

"Stand up," he said dryly.

She whimpered slightly, but reacted faster than he had expected. She pushed her hands on the floor and stood up, standing naked and dangerously close to him. He wanted to stretch a hand and fondle her perfect breasts, but he couldn't bring himself to. He knew that his father would have laughed at him at that moment. _Spineless_, that what he was.

"Get dressed," he ordered her again.

She looked at him, her brown eyes shining with tears, her lips parting again as if she was going to implore him once more. He couldn't let her.

"Get dressed and sit down," he said darkly, "I'm not sending you back."

For a brief moment, she looked at him, shock painting over her beautiful features. Then she scrambled on her feet and picked up her dress, wearing it quickly over her head and letting the material cover her perfect body.

He swallowed as she let herself fall once again gracefully on the floor, sitting in front of him with her legs crossed, like a child would do. She looked at him as if she expected him to bark some other order to her, but he was already ashamed of his tone with her earlier. She looked like a princess, she deserved people to whisper to her in adoration, not to order her around.

He took a few steps and sat on the bed, unbuttoning his coat and taking it off. "I…" he started unsurely, "I meant sit on the bed or the armchair, but if you are comfortable on the floor…"

She nodded and didn't move, and for a moment he had the horrible idea that she thought that he wanted her to give him head and that was why she had sat on the floor.

But her eyes looked at him as if he were a god and she was the high priestess of his cult. She looked at him with wondrous adoration and curiosity, probably wondering how he planned to fill in the two hours he had with her or what he would do since he didn't look like he wanted to fuck her. He wondered if he were the first person who refused to have sex with her.

Of course he was. He was hard just by looking at her. Surely none of her other clients had been that pathetic.

But he just wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to hear her voice without a pleading note in her tone, surely she had the sweetest voice ever. He wanted to ask her so many things he could write a book about her.

He cleared his throat and looked down at her. "I… I'm Scorpius," he said softly, "what's your name?" He knew what the name on the card was, but maybe that was a nickname and her real name was another one.

She beamed at him – properly beamed – and her auburn eyelashes fluttered as if she were just happy that he would talk to her. "I'm Scarlet," she said, and her voice was really the sweetest and most melodious thing he had ever heard.

And that was really her name.

"Nice… nice to meet you," he replied, fidgeting nervously in his lap.

"Nice to meet you too," she said warmly and politely, her smile widening with every word he said.

He tried hard to think about what he wanted to ask her first. They had two hours, he could have taken his time, ask her something, then maybe look at her in silence for a bit, then ask her something else…

Then suddenly something made him groan, he _only_ had two hours with her.

Two hours and that was all. He wouldn't have been able to see her again. To look at her. To talk to her. He could already feel his heart clenching at that thought, and he had only just met her.

He glanced back at her and saw that she was still smiling at him. He looked away and felt his cheeks warming up. Was he blushing? Really?

He took a deep breath and started to talk to her. "How old are you?" he asked nervously.

"Fifteen," she replied gently, "my father says that I was born in September."

He closed his eyes and groaned loudly. _She was underage_. Had he pushed her into that mattress and someone had found out about it he would have been sent to Azkaban without a trial. Prostitution and intercourse with a minor, the Prophet would have loved to write that article about the heir of the Malfoy fortune.

"How old are you?" she asked softly, confused by his reaction.

"I'm seventeen," he replied, looking at her, "and I was born in August." Then something hit him. "Who's your father?"

The smile disappeared from her face, and she looked almost apprehensively at him. "Mister Theodore Nott," she replied, "the owner."

Scorpius looked at her and frowned. He had seen Nott, she didn't look anything like him. He was a huge, rough man, and she looked so delicate and beautiful and tiny. Maybe she looked a lot like her mother.

"Who's your mother?" he asked her, wondering if maybe she was one of the older prostitutes.

"I don't know," she replied softly, her voice quivering slightly, "I've never met her."

Scorpius bit his bottom lip. "Oh, is she… is she dead?" he whispered.

"I don't know," she replied, "Father doesn't want me to ask about her."

He frowned at that. What kind of father would deny his daughter to know something about her mother? He found himself almost laughing at that. What kind of father would put his fifteen-year-old daughter to work in a brothel?

"Wait a second," he said, looking at her, "so you don't go to Hogwarts?" Of course she didn't. He would have noticed her. Was it legal to keep a witch or a wizard away from school? Merlin, who cared! It was illegal to make her work as a prostitute, that was sure.

Her lips parted in a smile once again. "Hogwarts," she said in awe, "I've read the book so many times."

"What… what book?"

"_Hogwarts: A History_," she replied, still smiling dreamily, "have you read it?"

"I… kind of," he replied stiffly. Rose Weasley had tried to make all the Prefects read it back in September but they had all refused. He had read the first two chapters and fallen asleep on the third one. "Do you like to read?" he asked her gently.

"Oh yes," she said, nodding forcefully, her beautiful hair cascading over her shoulders, "I love to read. I read every day." She looked at him curiously and added, "Do you like to read?"

He hated it, but he would have said yes even if she had asked him if he wanted her to torture him. "I love it," he replied softly.

She looked like she had found her kindred spirit. "Oh, have you ever read _The Tale of Viridina the Witch and Her Handsome Knight_?" she asked, still smiling. "It's my favourite book, I've read it twenty-four times."

He looked at her and chuckled at her enthusiasm. He had heard the name of that book, a romance with a silly young witch who was locked into a tower without her wand until a knight came to her rescue after having defeated dragons and an evil hag and many other tasks. His mother surely had it in her personal library at the Manor. "I haven't read it," he admitted, "but maybe you can tell me about it?"

She looked at him as if it was Christmas morning and he was exactly the present that she had longed to find under the tree for the whole year. She nodded eagerly and started to tell him the story from the very beginning, reciting some passages by heart, standing up to mime a duel between the knight and the hag, flushing when she had to describe the kiss between Viridina and the knight.

And throughout the story Scorpius couldn't do anything but stare at her, at her beautiful face, at her hair moving sinuously around her, at her swift feet dancing around the room, at her long, white arms moving around.

He was so entranced by this gorgeous creature, he almost didn't notice she had finished her tale and was sitting once again and looking at him with her beautiful, big eyes, waiting for him to ask her something else.

He blinked a couple of times and looked down at her. Wanting, more than anything, to try to find something to tell her about a book he had read. Not one of his textbooks, even though he suspected that she would have listened to him in rapt enthusiasm even if he told her about _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore. "Have you ever read _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_?" he finally asked, knowing full well that he was cheating, because he had never read the book himself, but his mother had told him all the stories more than once and thus making him confident enough to be able to tell her one of them.

She shook her head, beaming and expecting him to tell her everything about it.

"It's a collections of tales," he said, "my favourite is _The Tale of the Three_—"

His sentence was interrupted by a loud and tinkling bell coming from somewhere over the bed.

She turned her head towards it and then her face fell and the pain and delusion that painted her features made Scorpius' heart clench. "I have to go," she said wretchedly.

"What?" he asked in disbelief, checking his watch. It was indeed one in the morning and indeed the two hours had gone by in a flash. How long had her tale gone on? How could they have talked like that without noticing for two hours? No! It was too early, he needed her to stay longer, he couldn't let her go. He wanted her to stay. Could he keep her for the whole night? How much would that cost?

But she was already standing up and smoothing her dress.

"I… I'll bring you the book next time," he blurted out without thinking and biting his tongue only when it was too late. He didn't have money. Would his father pay for another hour with her? What would his mother think?

But all that was soon forgotten when her dejected expression changed suddenly and she smiled hopefully at him. "Are you coming back?" she asked, her voice thick with emotion.

He tried to smirk at her, but all he could manage was a dumb smile. "Would you like that?" he couldn't help asking, before he silently chastised himself for his arrogance.

She was kneeling next to him with her hands on the bed before he could even understand that she had moved. "Oh yes, please," she said imploringly, looking up at him, "nobody ever listens to me when I talk about the books that I read." She lowered her eyes and added, "Uncle Gregory laughs at me and Father says that I'm a silly little girl…"

"You… you are not," he said softly, "you are very intelligent."

She smiled gratefully at him. "So you'll come back," she whispered hopefully.

"Of course," he whispered back, unable to say anything else to her. "I'll come back soon."

"Tomorrow?" she asked, her hands fisting the bedspread as she looked at him pleadingly.

He felt a knot at his throat. If he promised to go back the next day and then he didn't, she would be crushed. He swallowed and opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the bell started to sound even louder and more insistently than before and Scarlet jumped to her feet and looked at him with her imploring eyes once more before telling him something that he couldn't hear because of the bell, and finally hurrying towards the door and outside.

The moment she had left the room and disappeared in the corridor the sound subdued and Scorpius was left there with a ringing in his ears and a throbbing heart.

He felt like she had been a dream. One of those pleasant, wonderful dreams that one wakes up from with longing and despair. Longing because it had been beautiful and despair because it was over.

He shook his head. That was ridiculous. He didn't even know her and yet, he felt like a stupid, quivering Hufflepuff. Falling in love with someone at first—

He stood from the bed and shook his head more forcefully. _He was not in love with her_. She was beautiful and perfect and her smile and her eyes had melted his heart, but that was not how a Malfoy behaved. Malfoys didn't fall in love with someone because she was perfect, they fell in love with the most suitable marriage prospect. And if they didn't fall in love all the better. _He was not in love with her_.

He wore his coat and started to walk towards the round room from which he had arrived.

She was not someone to marry anyway. She was a prostitute. _A prostitute_. He had forgotten about that for the two hours he had spent with her. He had always imagined prostitutes to be vulgar and covered in heavy makeup and wearing provocative underwear that left very little to the imagination.

Instead she was an angel. Yes, she was _angelic_, that was the best way he found to describe her. And nobody, especially not his father, was to know that he hadn't fucked her.

He opened the door and walked back into the round room. There was a tall and thin man at the counter, someone who looked way too old to be there. Someone who looked like he had grandchildren.

He was talking to Charles and he was smiling and nodding softly as if they had known each other for a long time.

Scorpius felt a surge of jealousy at the thought that he might have been Scarlet's next client. At the idea that he wouldn't have wanted to just talk to her, he felt his blood boil in his veins.

But luckily he wasn't going inside, he was just leaving with a flutter of his cloak.

Scorpius approached the counter and Charles smiled at him. "Was she of your liking, Sir?"

"I want to see her again," he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Charles looked at him with almost a sneer on his face. He lowered his voice as he brought his head closer to him. "She does have that effect on everybody," he murmured, and somehow Scorpius had to dig his nails into his palms to avoid punching him. He straightened up and looked at Scorpius intently. "You mean that you want another appointment with her," he specified.

Scorpius flushed with anger at his condescending tone. "Yes," he seethed.

"Of course, Sir," he said, flipping the pages of the registry he had in front of him. "When would you like to book her?"

"Tomorrow," he said anxiously.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sir," he said distractedly, "she's not free until next week."

Scorpius felt as if his heart had been carved out of his chest at those words. He could still hear her "Tomorrow?" spoken with such desperation, such longing to see him again.

"When?" he asked, trying not to sound too desperate, but not sure he succeeded.

"Sunday evening," replied Charles.

That was a week from that night. Scorpius felt his stomach being turned upside down at the thought of not seeing her for all that time. He felt sick when he reminded himself that all those hours when she was not free to see him were hours when she was with someone else.

"Okay," he said, defeated, "Sunday evening."

"One hour or two?" asked Charles lightly.

Then suddenly Scorpius realized that he didn't have money. "How… how much is one hour?" he asked unsurely.

Charles looked at him curiously.

"Tonight was a present," he hissed, feeling his cheeks getting warmer.

"Of course, Sir," he replied, opening a drawer and taking out the same 'Menu' that he had found in the room. Scarlet was the last one there, the picture he hadn't managed to reach, she looked almost scared as she sat on a chair, her feet dangling a few inches from the floor. A shy smile appearing on her lips right after she looked in terror at her left. As if someone out of the picture was barking at her to smile. His heart clenched again.

"This is her price," said Charles, pointing with his finger at a number at the bottom of the page.

Scorpius swallowed. Five hundred Galleons. She was worth five hundred Galleons and he had just spent two hours talking to her. And he was about to pay another five hundred Galleons to talk to her for another hour.

But blimey! He would have paid twice that price for half of the time with her.

Charles took the Menu and flipped through the other pages. "In case you find yourself struggling to get to that money," he said silkily, "we have many other options that are much more affordable."

Scorpius looked at the other girls and women. They all looked hideous now to him. But, Merlin! Were those really the prices for them? None of them had three digits like Scarlet's price. Screw that, none of them was higher than fifty Galleons!

He felt a surge of hatred and relief at Nott for making her so inaccessible. But if she were all booked for a week, it meant that many people considered her worthy of that money.

He raised his eyes on the wizard. "Can I pay you next week?" he asked him dryly.

The wizard shook his head. "You can pay us until the day before your appointment," he explained as he prepared another card for him, "if you don't send the money at least twenty-four hours before your scheduled time your card will turn to ashes and you will have to reschedule."

He handed him the card and Scorpius turned it in his hands three times. His name, a new date and a new time appeared and at the bottom… _her name_. So pretty that he couldn't help but brushing his fingertip over it.

"We are glad you enjoyed your experience tonight," said Charles with a smirk in his voice. "We hope to see you next week, Sir."

He looked warily at him, before turning on his heels and wobblingly making his way on the carpets towards the curtain that led to the stairs.

Scarlet's face appeared in front of his eyelids every time he blinked.

And he kept blinking all the way back home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:** First Wednesday update! I've decided to celebrate with... tons of reviews! Let them come to me.. Oh, I know, I sound like a broken record! But honestly, if I can't complain in my own author's notes, where can I do that? There's sex here, by the way, _you_ asked for that, and I delivered. It's kind of short and brutal (you want 5,000-word-sex scenes? Wait for my upcoming stories. I swear there's more sex than you can take...), but I like the scene. And there's quite a lot of Scarlet here... Hope you'll like it! I love this chapter just as much as the last one! By the way, guys, you can't even imagine what you do to me when you are guest reviewers and leave me a review with a question and I can't reply to you! I just want to scratch the screen with my nails... Thank you to all of you who reviewed, though! Honestly, if you are an author on this website you'll know the feeling of receiving a review, if you aren't... well, it's like a chocolate cupcake topped with Nutella and a Ferrero Rocher... It cheers you instantaneously! (By the way, I baked those for Christmas and they were scrumptious!)

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Nott's fingers curled around Scarlet's hip as he pushed into her from behind. He could see her hand fisting the pillow as she tried to smother a cry against the material. He stopped only when he was all the way inside and her round, perfect buttocks rested against his pelvis. He liked to take her like that, on his side, with her smooth back pressed against his chest. But it was a difficult and straining position and he always ended up flipping her onto her stomach and pushing her into the mattress.

He leaned closer to her and kissed her cheek. "You're tight tonight, Scarlet," he said silkily. "Have they all fucked you well?"

She looked in front of her and swallowed, her long fingers curling tightly against the pillow. She nodded lightly.

Nott grunted in appreciation as he exited her and pushed back in, feeling her walls snug around him.

"Even the Malfoy boy?" he asked, pulling out again and thrusting back into her.

She didn't reply, but she arched her back and scrunched her eyes shut when he pushed into her particularly hard. "Answer me," he snapped, slapping her hip and making her gasp.

"I… I don't know who he is," she almost sobbed.

He pulled out and leisurely pushed in a few other times before closing a hand around her neck and tilting her head back as he leaned closer. "The young, blond boy, that had you for two hours," he whispered. "Was he satisfied? Were you a good whore for him?"

She lowered her eyes like she used to do when she was embarrassed. And he groaned. He loved to see her flush and become all shy for him. It didn't happen often enough lately. "Scarlet," he grunted warningly when she didn't reply.

"Yes," she whimpered, "yes, he was… satisfied…"

He slid his arm under her breasts as he flipped her on her stomach, his erection never exiting her. "Good," he murmured against her ear before he started to shove into her viciously. Her cries of pain and discomfort were like a melody that urged him on and it only took him a few minutes to come deep inside of her and collapse on her shaking body.

"Good," he whispered again, kissing her neck and her cheek, "you're such a good daughter… Good…"

And as he pulled out of her he couldn't help wondering what would Potter think of his daughter fucking Malfoy's son. And he fell asleep with a smile on his lips and an arm tight around Scarlet's waist.

ooo

The wooden board next to Rose's bedroom creaked as Hugo stepped on it in the middle of the night. He pushed the door of his sister's bedroom open and peeked inside.

"Rose," he whispered.

There was no reply, she was breathing softly and sleeping soundly.

Hugo walked inside and closed the door at his back. "Rose," he repeated.

She let out a sleepy, "Hmm," and her eyelids fluttered.

"Rose," he called her a third time, walking on the other side of her big, queen size bed and sitting down.

"Hugo," she murmured, trying to open her eyes, "what's the time?"

"It's almost five," he replied.

"In the afternoon?" she asked, her blue eyes opening wide.

He shook his head. "In the morning," he replied. "Can I sleep here?"

She groaned and closed her eyes again. "Hugo, you're a grown up now," she said sleepily, "you can't come here every time you can't sleep."

"I had _that_ dream…" he said softly, his voice tiny.

Rose opened her eyes to look at him again, before closing them once more. "Get in," she finally conceded. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked as he raised the covers and slipped inside, rolling on his side to face her.

"It's always the same," he replied dejectedly.

Rose nodded and yawned. "Well, talk about it," she said. "Remember what they said at St Mungo's, the more you talk about it the less it'll haunt you."

Hugo considered her words carefully. He didn't believe them at all. He had spent six years talking about his dream and he was still haunted by it now.

"Hugo," murmured Rose, "talk now before I fall asleep again."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "It was the same dream that I always dream, Rose," he replied, "Lily and I were at Grandma's and it was sunny. Then suddenly the sun goes away and we turn and there's this man, he is tall and has a mask. Lily and I look at him, we are scared, but we don't run away. And he points his wand at Lily and she falls back." He tried to keep his voice steady, but Rose's fingertips on his cheeks let him know that she was looking for tears. "I remember her face as if it was yesterday," he continued, "I remember I thought that she was sleeping. I remember her hair splayed under her head and I didn't do anything. I… I didn't do anything…" He was crying now and Rose's fingertips really brushed away tears.

"Shh," she quieted him, "shh, Hugo it's all right."

"I… I could have cried," he choked, "I could have screamed for Grandma… You would have done that, Rose…"

"You were scared, Hugo," she murmured soothingly, "you were scared…" She smiled sadly with her eyes closed. "And what if I were there and I screamed? What if you had screamed? He would have grabbed Lily and Disapparated with her before Grandma could even hear you crying…"

"I should have done something," he sniffled.

"You were nine, Hugo," she soothed him, "you didn't even have a wand."

"I should have kicked him or bitten him…"

"And then he would have killed you," she said, caressing his cheek, "no, I'm glad you didn't do anything stupid…"

Hugo sniffled loudly and Rose wormed her way towards him and kissed his forehead like their mother would do.

"Rose," he whispered.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think… do you think she's still alive?" he choked out.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know," she whispered.

Hugo nodded. "I… I miss her," he confessed.

"I miss her too, Hugo. I miss her too."

ooo

"_The Tale of Viridina the Witch and Her Handsome Knight_?" asked his mother surprised. "I might have it, Scorpius, why?"

Scorpius tried to wave a hand dismissively at her. "I wanted something to read during the holidays."

"A romance novel?" she enquired, cocking an eyebrow questioningly. "And since when do you read for your enjoyment?"

Scorpius looked away, his face darkening. "I read for my own enjoyment," he hissed, "I just, don't do that often."

His mother pursed her lips, probably wanting to state that he didn't do that at all. Never. And she would have been right. Instead, she turned and started to browse the shelves of the corner of the library that his father had reserved to her ever since the day they got married.

Scorpius looked at the volumes as well. Thousands and thousands of them, they covered both floors of the library from floor to ceiling and he was sure there were more books behind the ones on the front. He couldn't help thinking about Scarlet and how much she would have enjoyed to sit there and read. She had read a book twenty-four times, he was sure that that meant that Nott didn't have that many books at all for her to read.

"Here," said his mother, handing him an old edition of the novel. On the cover a beautiful witch with dark hair and big blue eyes was swooning in the arms of her handsome knight. "Don't let your father know that you're reading such a piece of literature," she said sweetly, "otherwise he'll think that you have lost your mind."

He didn't reply to her, he just brushed his palm on the cover to dust it a little. "Do we have _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_?" he asked, looking at her.

She looked half-annoyed and half-surprised. "Of course we do, Scorpius," she replied curtly, "I gave it to you for your fifth birthday. It should be somewhere in your room, I suspect." She flared her nostrils. "Unless you've thrown it away."

"I'm sure I haven't," he replied darkly. He wasn't sure at all. "I… where's Father?"

"Gringotts," she replied lightly, "taking care of some vault adjustments they are making. Did you need to talk to him?"

He nodded softly.

"About last night?" she asked sharply.

He looked at her a bit taken aback. He didn't want to discuss those things with his mother. Not the fact that he had been with a prostitute, nor that he hadn't been. "I need to ask him a favour," he replied darkly. "Now, if you will excuse me, Mother, I need to go and find a book."

And he stalked away, hoping to find the volume in his bedroom.

ooo

Scarlet had tried to read her favourite book for the whole morning. But the tome had been lying open in her lap for hours and she hadn't been able to go past the first few lines.

She couldn't focus. She couldn't even see the words in front of her. All she could see was the face of the young man she had met the night before. _Scorpius_. Never a name had sounded sweeter to her. The way he had looked at her, the way he had listened to her, the way he had talked to her. As if she were a princess. As if she were Viridina and he was her knight.

A loud crack distracted Scarlet from her musings and she held her breath as she heard some quick steps nearing the wardrobe. She tried to push her father's heavy coats in front of her, sheltering herself from the view in case someone opened the shutters, but it wasn't enough.

The doors opened quickly and a tiny, brown hand closed around her wrist. "Miss Scarlet shouldn't hide from Taffy," squealed the little house-elf, "Taffy looked for her everywhere!"

She sighed as she let the house-elf drag her out. She stood up, towering over the creature and smoothing her dress.

"Miss Scarlet was reading the book again," sighed Taffy. "How can Miss Scarlet read in the wardrobe, Taffy doesn't know!"

"I wasn't reading, Taffy," she said with a little smile, "I was thinking…"

"Thinking of what, Taffy wonders," she almost snorted.

Scarlet knelt in front of the house-elf as she was closing the doors of the wardrobe. "I met my handsome knight last night, Taffy," she said smiling, her voice fluttering up high like the wings of butterflies.

Taffy looked at her with two huge and worried eyes. "Is Miss Scarlet sick?" she asked. "Is she dreaming dreams that look like reality?"

Scarlet shook her head. "No," she whispered, "he was real." She smiled and let herself fall on her back on the floor, arms stretched above her head as she remembered. "He was tall and blonde and he had eyes of silver. And he was handsome and gentle and… he likes to read! No, he _loves_ to read."

Taffy looked down at her, her long nose almost poking her cheek. "What is Miss Scarlet talking about?" she asked concerned.

"He came and stayed for two hours," she said dreamily, "and we talked and talked and talked… and the two hours flew away…" She raised her head and turned to look at Taffy. "And he promised me he would come back," she whispered urgently. "Tonight!"

"Oh," said Taffy, grabbing her arm and trying to make her rise from the floor. "Then Miss Scarlet needs to take a bath and get ready."

Scarlet sat up and brought her knees to her chest. "I don't want to take a bath today," she whispered, the very thought of walking into the girls' bathroom and let the other girls have fun at her expenses made her want to stay dirty all her life.

"Oh, but Taffy looked for Miss Scarlet everywhere for that!" exclaimed the elf. "The bathroom is empty. The girls are still sleeping!" she added, lowering her voice.

"Really?" asked Scarlet meekly, that was what Taffy always said to make her go and take her bath when she didn't want to. And it wasn't always true.

Taffy helped her to her feet and nodded profusely. "Really," she replied, "and handsome knights don't like smelly whores."

Scarlet lowered her eyes as she followed Taffy out of the bedroom she shared with her father. No, probably Taffy was right, handsome knights didn't like smelly whores.

They walked silently on the cold stones of the corridor and when Taffy pushed the door of the bathroom open, Scarlet was relieved to see that the bathroom was really empty.

She walked inside and closed the door at her back, resisting the temptation to lock it. The last time she had done that, the girls had called Father and she had to take cold baths for a month as punishment.

"Miss Scarlet gets undressed," said Taffy, "and Taffy runs the bath." She turned on the tap of one of the smaller bathtubs and emptied almost an entire jar of a dense soap inside. The water turned all the colours of the rainbows in turn and started to send out a sweet scent of roses.

Scarlet let the dress fall at her feet and stepped over it, before going to stand near the bathtub. "Miss Scarlet gets inside and Taffy will wash her hair," said the house-elf gingerly.

Scarlet nodded and stepped over the edge, sitting down in the water. She could feel the warm hand of the elf on her forehead as Taffy pushed her head backwards and under the water. The girls always tried to drown her when they did that to her, but she trusted Taffy and let her do it without a word. When her hair was completely soaked the house-elf let her come out of the water again.

She laid her shoulders against the bathtub and Taffy gathered the flaming locks in her little hands and started to lather them up with her special shampoo.

Scarlet closed her eyes and sighed as the elf massaged her scalp gently. "He was so handsome, Taffy," she murmured, "I think I'm in love… just like Viridina…"

"Miss Scarlet shouldn't say these things," squealed Taffy, "if her father hears her… he will put her in the playroom!"

"If her father hears _what_?" asked a sharp voice near the door.

Scarlet's eyes opened wide as she heard Lulu's voice and her swift, approaching steps. Taffy whined softly and tightened her hands in her hair.

"Keeping secrets from Daddy, are we?" asked Lulu, looking down at Scarlet with her hands on her naked hips.

"No," she whispered, "I… I…"

Lulu rolled her eyes. "Move elf," she barked rudely, pushing Taffy away who fell to the floor with a squeal. "I'll take it from here."

Scarlet sat up and turned to look at Lulu, a hand protectively on her hair. "I… I want Taffy to do it," she whispered.

Lulu sneered at her. "Oh, and then she doesn't think she is a princess," she hissed, grabbing Scarlet's shoulders and positioning her back against the tub once again, "ordering us around like she owns the place. _I want Taffy to do it_…" She grabbed her hair and started to massage her head forcefully, scraping her scalp on purpose.

Scarlet scrunched her eyes closed, but she bit her bottom lip with force, trying hard to suffocate the whimpers and not let her know that she was hurting her.

"This hair is too long," snapped Lulu, "it's ridiculous. You look like a horse." She snickered and added, "Have you ever seen a horse?"

Scarlet shook her head and Lulu just grabbed her more forcefully. "Don't move," she snapped, "talk. Merlin, do you have a mouth? Is it good only to blow your clients or what?" She didn't wait for her answer as she shoved her forward and pushed her head under the water.

Scarlet gasped, flailing her hands as she tried to find the rim of the tub to push herself up, but Lulu was keeping her down and she heard her laughing from outside the water, and it was a grotesque and almost scary noise the one which reached her ears through the liquid. It was only when she started to gulp down the bubbly water and her hand slipped from the rim that Lulu let her up.

She coughed and spluttered as she emerged, and grabbed the edge to move away from Lulu. Taffy squealed pitifully at her and went to pat her back and help her expel the soapy water.

"Oh, what a drama queen," snorted Lulu, "if your hair was shorter it would be less heavy and you wouldn't always drown when you take a bath." She smirked and murmured, "I can take care of that."

"No!" squealed the house-elf, standing with a finger raised towards Lulu. "Taffy will tell Master if Lulu cuts Miss Scarlet's hair. Master will put Lulu in the playroom for a week."

Lulu glared at Taffy and Scarlet tried to make herself smaller and disappear amongst the bubbles, her mouth still tasted like soap and she felt like she had water in her chest. It was naturally, all in her head, as Taffy had told her the first time Lulu had done that to her.

"Lie down," said Lulu snappishly, taking her eyes away from Taffy to look at Scarlet.

Scarlet shook her head. "No," she said feebly.

Lulu knelt near the bathtub and splashed some water into Scarlet's face, making her squeal like Taffy. "You have to be clean for tonight, little princess," she hissed, "a clean whore for her clients…"

"Taffy already washed me," she said, her body shaking in the corner of the tub.

Lulu grabbed something from the floor and raised it in front of her eyes. "Then why is your sponge all dry?" she asked sharply. She splashed more water in her face and added, "Don't lie to me, Scarlet, you know I don't like it when you lie to me…" She grabbed her hair and pulled her back down, her scalp smacking against the rim of the tub.

She let out a whimper at the pain, but soon she was squirming under the sponge and Lulu's rough treatment. The girl soaked the sponge and started to brush her breasts forcefully, her long nails scraping her skin and making her whine.

"No nails!" squealed Taffy, perching over the tub to look at her. "Master doesn't want you to leave marks!"

Lulu rolled her eyes as she let the sponge fluctuate on the water and moved her hand south. "What about marks where nobody can see?" she asked softly, moving her nails between her thighs.

Scarlet gasped and closed her legs, using one hand to try to push away her fingers, splashing water everywhere in the process.

"Hey!" spluttered Lulu, withdrawing her hand. "Stupid little girl! I'm soaked."

A high pitched laughter came from the door and both Scarlet and Lulu turned to look at a tall young woman with blonde hair and big, blue eyes. She shook her head and made her way towards the bathtub. "You always have to have fun without us, Lulu," she scolded playfully.

Lulu snorted. "You sleep too much, Freya," she replied. "Maybe you can help me here."

Freya smiled nastily as she grabbed Scarlet's wrists. "With pleasure," she hissed.

Scarlet cried so much that they had to push her underwater again while Lulu scraped the walls of her cunt until she bled, making the water turn crimson between her legs.

"Now you are all clean and ready for tonight," hissed Lulu as her fingers exited her and she let her go, "inside and out."

And the laughter of the girls was the only thing she could hear as Taffy helped her stand on her shaky legs and walk out of the tub. The elf cleaned the blood away, dried her tears and brushed her hair.

And Scarlet closed her eyes and imagined her handsome knight would come and take her away from that place.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes:** Okay, didn't get tons of reviews, but got some lovely ones! Thank you so much for that! There's a bit of Scarlet in this chapter, I know that's what you like, guys (and I like her too). Honestly, I'm working on editing chapter 18 at the moment and so far I'm noticing that there are very few chapters without any Scarlet at all. Well, she kind of is the heroine, isn't she? I don't have much to write here today, nor anything fun... Sorry about that... Ah, but I have a question for you, am I the only one who keeps changing her wording in her stories? I mean, every fracking time I read a chapter I have to change something. Every. Fracking. Time. Bah! Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Five**

"Harry was looking at a brochure for memorial services before Christmas," murmured Ron, sipping his morning coffee from the cup that Rose had gotten him for Christmas. The writing _#1_ _Dad _flashed on it every time he brought it to his lips.

Hermione sighed as she put the bacon strips on top of the eggs and walked with the two plates back to the table. Her children were still asleep, that was what the Christmas holidays did to them. Instead of being up and ready to spend time with their parents – whom they didn't see for the whole year –, they slept until ten or eleven. Hugo even until midday at times. But they worked hard all year while at Hogwarts, they deserved a bit of rest when they were at home.

"I know," she said, poking her scrambled eggs with the fork. "Ginny was in tears when she told me. She said she won't let him have a memorial for Lily not even in a hundred years."

Ron sighed. "I don't know what to say," he replied softly, cutting the bacon, "I think it could be good for them, you know, to have some kind of closure, that's what Harry said, anyway… But…"

"But what about Hugo and your mother?" asked Hermione with a sigh. "He still dreams about it and your mother keeps saying that it was all her fault, that she should have paid them more attention, that she shouldn't have let them wander out of the house and into the fields." She lowered her voice and added, "She still cries at night."

"I know," he agreed, "if they were doing a memorial, they would suffocate that last hope that keeps Mum from going insane and Hugo from falling into the deepest pits of depression."

Hermione nodded forcefully, her curls bobbing around her face. "I wish you could find her," she said, almost angrily, "I mean, alive or… not. I wish you could at least find the body."

"It would be a relief," he sighed, nodding.

"Except for Hugo and your mother, I know," she added, "but at least we would know. And Harry and Ginny… they would be able to move on…"

"I know," he murmured. "Teddy said that he might have found another trail. Something that has to do with Wales and the unicorn trade."

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Where they would need a virgin little girl to attract the unicorns," she said, shaking her head. "He had found so many leads in six years, and every time he reaches a dead end, I wonder if he'll ever get tired."

"She was his first case," Ron reminded her, "while he was still a trainee. And you know that Lily was like a sister to him." He stopped with the fork in midair and swallowed. "I meant _is_. She is like a sister to him."

Hermione looked at him; eyes filled with misery as she nodded gently.

Suddenly, the door of the kitchen swung open and Rose, hair in disarray and a nightgown loosely tied over her pyjamas, walked inside, yawning soundly.

"Ah," said Ron, grinning at the sight of his daughter, "our Head Girl is finally up." He checked the Grandfather Clock and added, "And it's _only_ ten thirty."

Rose nodded at him distractedly, still too sleepy to acknowledge him with a spoken greeting. She grabbed a bowl and poured herself some cereals before drowning them in a milk waterfall and sitting across from her mother at the kitchen table. She dug into the cereal bowl and stopped with the spoon in front of her face. She blinked and looked at her parents' plates, filled with bacon and eggs, then she turned towards the empty pans.

"Mum!" she almost whined.

"Well, good morning to you too, Darling," replied Hermione with a smile.

Rose pouted. "I want bacon and eggs too," she protested. "You made them just for you and Dad."

"And they are delicious," said Ron with a grin, bringing a forkful of eggs to his mouth and chewing noisily. "This bacon, especially, there's something about it… Merlin, Rosie, get yourself some… it's—"

"Finished," grinned Hermione, "which is a pity, because it's so good, isn't it, Ron?"

"Mouth-watering."

Rose pushed the cereals into her mouth and chewed on them with a pout on her face. "Can I have bacon and eggs tomorrow?" she asked, glancing hopefully at her mother.

She smiled at her and shook her head. "Oh Rose, your father and I are just having you on, I'll get you some straight away."

Rose beamed at her as she stood and summoned eggs and bacon from the fridge. "Thank you, Mum, you are the best," she said gleefully. "By the way, can I go to Uncle George's shop this afternoon? I want to meet up with Fred and Roxy to decide what to do for New Year's Eve."

"I thought we were all going to Grimmauld Place for New Year's Eve," replied Ron rather stiffly, picking up his mug again.

Rose looked at him and bit her bottom lip. "We thought we would go to a Wizarding club or something, Dad," she said softly, "you know, since we are all of age…"

"Rose, you know what we think about—"

"Yes I know," she cut him off urgently, "but Dad, we are all of age, we all have a wand and we are not going to be alone. We're staying all together. I promise that nothing bad will happen." She smiled softly and added, "Aunt Ginny is letting Al and James go…"

"Is she?" asked Hermione, biting her bottom lip. She looked at Ron and he looked back at her. "I suppose… if James is going and… is Teddy going?"

"Yes," replied Rose, nodding forcefully. "And Victoire and Dom… everybody, really…"

"We'll talk about it," said Ron seriously.

"Dad…"

"I said we'll talk about it," he repeated. "It's not a no, Rosie. It's just… I want to make sure that you'll be looked after."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm of age, I can look after myself," she said a bit too hotly.

"Rose, your father is only trying to protect you," coaxed Hermione gently.

"I can protect myself, Mum," she protested, sighing.

"I said we'll talk about it," said Ron a third and final time, his tone much more serious than before.

And that was when the conversation stopped and Rose just nodded softly and waited for the bacon and eggs that her mother had promised her.

ooo

"Five hundred Galleons?"

Scorpius nodded nervously. "Yes."

Draco quirked an eyebrow at him. "That's a lot of money, Scorpius," he said silkily, "even for a wealthy family such as ours."

Scorpius seemed to try very hard to hold his father's stare, but failed miserably, his grey eyes looking away, his cheeks colouring slightly after a few seconds. "I know," he replied, his voice cold, "I want you to consider it an advance on my inheritance."

"And what would be the purpose of such a sum of money?" he asked softly. Draco thought he knew, and somehow he was definitely not happy about it.

Scorpius looked resolute when he replied, "Going back to Nott & Goyle."

The older man snorted softly at his son's admission. "That was exactly what your mother feared," he said sharply, "that you would want to go back there as soon as you got out of it." He pursed his lips and took a deep breath. "Five hundred Galleons," he repeated with contempt in his voice, "how many times do you want to go back? Every night for a month?"

Scorpius' jaw set. "Just once," he replied urgently, "I want to see her again."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "And that's what Nott warned me about," he said quietly. "He said she was good but also… what was the word he used? _Addictive_, I suppose… I told him that my son was way better than that. I must have been mistaken."

Scorpius pressed his lips together into a thin line and didn't reply.

"You know the answer is no, don't you, Scorpius?" asked Draco placidly. His son really didn't expect him to give him more money to go see a prostitute, did he? The first time had been a gift, a little present to help him getting rid of the burden of his virginity. But that was not to become a habit.

Scorpius swallowed and somehow he seemed to look more resolute than before. "I've already booked another hour with her," he said firmly.

"Well, cancel it," replied Draco dismissively.

"I can't."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "Why?" he asked in a hiss. "Are you having difficulties locating parchment and a quill to write to Nott?"

Scorpius bit his bottom lip. "They said I couldn't cancel it," he continued, a slight quiver in his voice, "there'll be… _repercussions_ if I do."

Draco stared at him for a long moment. Scorpius' face was impassive. He was a real Malfoy after all, and for a moment Draco didn't know if he was bluffing or not. He remembered Nott telling him something about clients who had been in need of Goyle's rough treatment, but he had never specified the reason or what this treatment included. And if Scorpius wasn't bluffing, probably they wouldn't have spared those repercussions on his family just because Draco had shared a dorm with them for seven years.

"Is she really as beautiful as Nott claims her to be?" he asked his son haughtily.

Scorpius nodded softly.

"Was she worth the money?"

He nodded again and lowered his eyes, his face colouring.

Draco stared at him for another long, quiet moment. The situation was almost comical, even though Draco didn't want to laugh at all. Scorpius looked like a child asking for a new toy, when he was actually a young man wanting money for a prostitute.

"An advance on your inheritance," he said softly, caving in at the thought of having Goyle torturing them to get the money. "I have to go to Gringotts tomorrow in the morning, and you're coming with me. You'll have papers to sign."

Scorpius looked up at him with eyes wide. "Thank you, Father," he said, his lips curling into an involuntary smile.

Draco waved a hand in front of his face. "Just this once, Scorpius," he replied darkly. "You are not to book another hour with her, am I understood?"

"Yes, Father."

"Leave me now," he added coldly, nodding, "I have work to do."

Scorpius nodded and jumped on his feet, walking briskly and way too happily towards the door.

"Scorpius," Draco called him. "Don't ask me for anything else until next Christmas."

ooo

When Taffy walked into the bedroom, Scarlet had been crying on the bed for hours. Her pillowcase was all wet and her throat hurt with every sob she took. Her small hand was grabbing the material as if life depended on it, and her body was shaken by the continuous weeping.

"Why is Miss Scarlet not ready?" squealed the house-elf agitatedly. "It's almost time!"

She shook her head and sobbed, "I don't want to work tonight, Taffy."

The house-elf hurried at her side and placed a comforting, little hand on her arm. "Is Miss Scarlet sore again? Does she need a potion?"

"No," she sniffled, "I just don't want to work…"

Taffy snorted through her long nose. "That is not an excuse that Master will like," she said sensibly, "Master will put Miss Scarlet in the playroom."

Her bottom lip quivered at the thought, but she whispered bravely, "I don't care…"

"But Taffy cares," said the house-elf, her big mouth stretching into a comforting smile. "Taffy doesn't like it when Miss Scarlet is punished. Taffy has to spread ointments that stink on Miss Scarlet's poor skin and in her poor cunt and in her poor arsehole."

Scarlet swallowed at the thought. She rolled on her back and brought a hand to her chest, closing her eyes. "I think my heart is broken, Taffy," she sobbed, "I think I'm going to die."

Taffy grabbed her arm and tugged her forcefully, dragging her towards the edge of the bed and pushing her legs down to bring her up and make her sit straight. She climbed on the bed behind her and Scarlet could feel her little hands in her hair, trying to comb the knots out of her locks.

"He never came, Taffy," she sniffled, "I waited for him night after night and he never came." She brushed away the tears from her cheeks and new ones fell down immediately. "I don't think he loves me," she added in a whisper. "I think he hates me…"

The elf patted her shoulder lightly. "Nobody can hate Miss Scarlet," she said sweetly, "Miss Scarlet is too beautiful and nice."

Scarlet shook her head. "Everybody hates me, Taffy," she replied, her voice pained, "the girls hate me…"

"The girls are stupid and ugly," snorted Taffy. "They are jealous of Miss Scarlet." She managed to untangle the last knots and jumped down from the bed. She pushed a little stool near Scarlet's legs, climbed on it and started to clean her face and blow her nose and put a potion in her eyes to get rid of the redness.

"Sometimes I think Father hates me too," she added softly as Taffy worked hard to make her look presentable.

Taffy shook her head frantically. "Oh no," she squealed, "Master loves Miss Scarlet. She is his favourite."

Scarlet lowered her eyes. She was his favourite. He never had anybody else in his bed but her, even though sometimes she wished that he did.

"There, there," said Taffy, patting her cheek lightly, "Miss Scarlet is beautiful again." The elf cupped her cheeks and tilted her head back, surveying her work attentively.

Scarlet looked into the big eyes of the little creature, seeing her own reflection in them. She didn't look like she had cried at all. Taffy was a good house-elf. She smiled softly at the creature to show her thankfulness.

Taffy squealed in delight at her smile. "Miss Scarlet has to work," she said, jumping down from the stool, "what if her handsome knight comes tonight and he doesn't find her?"

Scarlet considered her words and the breath almost caught in her throat at the thought that if he came that night and she didn't go to work, he would have never found her again. "He will get angry with me," she murmured fretfully.

Taffy nodded forcefully. "Yes," she replied, tugging at Scarlet's wrist to make her stand up. The elf walked around her and smoothed her dress and placed her crimson ribbon right under her breasts. "There," she said, "Miss Scarlet is all ready to work."

At that moment, the bell that signalled the beginning of the night rang and Scarlet hurried out of the bedroom and into the round room with the other girls.

Her heart filled with hope to see her knight again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes:** READ THIS! I would say enjoy this chapter, but you are not going to let me know if you enjoyed it or not, so what's the point really? Just out of curiosity, have you ever heard of my story "But Thy Eternal Summer Shall Not Fade"? Of course you haven't. It's a long and really complex story (ten gazillion times better than this one, if the comments on HarryPotterFanFiction are any indication), and I received barely more than three reviews per chapter here. It really wasn't worth the effort. So I deleted it before I posted the last chapters. Just a heads up in case you don't find this story anymore in the upcoming future. Might not be worth the effort - I'm not blackmailing you, I'm just being nice enough to let you know. With the translation volunteer work on OTW and my job, I might just not have the time to upload my story here too. Right, that said, this chapter is here for now, so you can go and read it! :D  


* * *

**Chapter Six**

Scorpius had signed more papers than he deemed appropriate for an advance on his inheritance. Especially since he was the only heir to the Malfoy fortune and everything that was now owned by his parents would one day be his. And since, like every other Malfoy, he would most certainly not get a job after Hogwarts and just live with the money he inherited, he really couldn't see why all these papers were necessary – it wasn't as if he would have used the money to open up any kind of enterprise.

But they had spent most of the morning at Gringotts and Scorpius had lost count of the number of documents he had been shown and the quantity of signatures he had to put on them. And it was only after three hours and after talking to four Goblins that came into an oval office to attend to them, that they were finally free to go, with the money hid inside their cloaks.

"You already have your appointment, don't you, Scorpius?" asked his father coldly as they walked out of the bank and into the chilly air of that December morning.

All in all, he had been extremely complaisant about the whole business, his only request had been that his mother was not to know about it. Scorpius wondered idly if there was something that his father wanted in exchange from granting him his permission to go back to see a prostitute. Maybe his little lie about Nott threatening to do something unspecified to them in case they didn't pay had worked better than Scorpius had anticipated. Or maybe his father wanted to go to Nott & Goyle himself and didn't want Scorpius to tell Mother.

But Scorpius hoped fervently that it was the former possibility and not the latter, because that very thought made him seethe. And the notion that he might ask for Scarlet made him sick to his stomach.

Scorpius had spent every single night awake in his bed, thinking about her. Thinking about all those hours when she was busy with other clients. Thinking about all those disgusting men who wanted to use her for their own enjoyment.

Surely, nobody was as big a fool as he himself had been. Surely everybody else had the guts to fuck her until they came. Until they covered her in the milky strings of their come.

He closed his eyes and suddenly he could see her. Her beautiful face, scrunched up in pain, her body writhing under that of some disgusting old man, her delicate, little hands grasping the covers of the bed; and the faceless wizard kissing and licking and whispering depravities to her.

"Scorpius?" asked his father, quirking an eyebrow.

Scorpius' eyes snapped open as he looked at him. "I'm sorry, I was distracted," he replied softly.

"You said you already have your appointment, don't you?" he repeated dryly. "I mean, you don't have to confirm it, or anything? Or maybe let them know that you have the money."

Scorpius nodded, gladly noticing that his father was worried about the payment. "I will have to send the money," he told him. "And my new appointment is this Sunday evening, at ten."

His father nodded curtly at him and seemed about to ask him something else, when he stopped walking and stared at something in front of them with his eyes narrowed to two slits.

Scorpius followed his gaze. He wasn't looking at something, he was looking at _someone_. Albus Severus Potter, more precisely. Scorpius couldn't help groaning as he saw him. Potter's father had been the Auror who had all the Wizarding whorehouses closed years before, he felt as if his fellow Prefect would know perfectly well what he was doing there and why he needed the money that he had under his cloak. Even though he couldn't see it. Scorpius felt as if Potter would surely be able to pierce through his skull and right into his head and know everything about Scarlet.

"Isn't that Harry Potter's son?" asked his father quietly, his eyes still on the young man who seemed to be waiting for someone outside Madam Malkin's.

"Yes, Father," replied Scorpius nervously as they kept walking. They would have soon walked past him and Scorpius tried to look everywhere but at the other student, attempting to go unnoticed.

It didn't work.

"Malfoy," Potter greeted him casually as they walked past him, nodding lazily in his direction.

Scorpius turned towards him and nodded back. "Potter," he said trying to sound calm, "buying a new uniform?"

Potter shook his head. "Waiting for my mother," he replied.

Scorpius nodded. "See you at school," he said curtly.

"Don't forget we have to patrol the train together on the ride back," Potter reminded him.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and turned to tell him that he remembered perfectly well thank you very much he didn't need him to remind him, when he gasped and almost stumbled over his feet.

_Scarlet was there_.

He shook his head forcefully, rubbing his eyes almost angrily before looking again.

No, she was not Scarlet.

Next to Potter there was a woman, and she was talking to him and showing him a new dress. She must have been in her forties, just like his father, and she was _beautiful_. Long, red hair, brown eyes, fair skin covered in freckles and—

Scorpius turned away. No, it had been just a trick of his mind. He was obsessing over Scarlet, of course he saw her everywhere there was someone who looked a bit like her.

Or a lot like her in this case.

But it was a trick.

_Just a trick_.

A trick of his obsessed mind.

ooo

"We are glad to see you back, Sir," said Charles with a knowing smile. "Again, you are slightly early, but you can wait for her in the room we'll assign you like last time."

Scorpius nodded, without being able to reply. He felt his mouth dry, his heart was beating furiously in his chest, and his fingers and toes had gone numb. And he was certain that that was not how one should have felt when going on a paid appointment with a prostitute. That was something that he should have felt when he had a date with some girl that he liked, not someone who was paid to fuck him. Or paid to talk to him, in his case.

But how could he remind himself that someone who looked so innocent and beautiful like Scarlet was not a normal girl? That she was a prostitute. That she… she didn't go on dates, that she…

Merlin! What had he got himself into? Maybe he should have asked for his money back already and cancel the appointment.

He should have. And then he should have forgotten about her. _Forever_.

But he could still hear her voice echoing in his mind as she said that she would have been punished if he sent her back. And he didn't want that. And he had that book for her under his cloak, his fingers were gripping it like life depended on it.

"Mister Malfoy?"

He blinked as he looked at Charles. Next to him a tall, blonde girl with green eyes and lips as red as rubies was looking at him curiously. He hadn't even heard her entering into the room.

"Room ten, tonight, Sir," he said, giving him a card.

He nodded as he took the card with the number of the room from the wizard, then the girl started to walk towards a door that swung open and Scorpius knew that he had to follow her through it and into the dark corridor.

Luckily, this girl seemed much quieter than the other one. He didn't want to hear anything about Scarlet that came from the mouth of those harlots. When they reached room ten, she pushed the door open for him and said, "Enjoy her," almost sweetly before closing the door at his back.

The room was a perfect copy of the other one, except for the fact that this one was all covered in green and silver.

Very Slytherin, very fitting.

He quickly took off his cloak and lay it down on an armchair before going to sit on the bed. He placed _The Tales of Beedle the Bard _on the velvety blanket near him and sat down, fidgeting impatiently.

He felt his head light. He couldn't believe that he was going to see her again. Only one hour, though, and then she would have had to bolt out of the door at the insisting sound of that damn bell.

Only one hour… and the other time two hours had gone in a flash.

For a moment he wondered if he were doing the right thing, if he wouldn't have suffered even more after that night. After he saw her again and all her beauty and grace and fragility were once again going to be imprinted in his mind with even more force. Because he had suffered. He had suffered in those nights while he was forced away from her.

And Scarlet? Had she suffered for him? Would she suffer even more? He felt a surge of pride and smugness at the way she had pleaded him to go back to her. At the way she had looked at him. For the first time ever, a girl was looking at him because he was himself, not because he was the heir of an immense fortune and descended of an ancient family of pure-blood wizards.

He gnawed on his bottom lip as he hoped that she hadn't looked at him like that because she was paid to do so. Did she look at all the clients like that? Was she just acting with him? He would have slapped the daylight out of her if he came to know that she were feigning her interest in him, and then finally he would have fucked her and got his money worth out of her.

Or maybe not. Maybe he would have just smiled at her and told her that everything was just fine and that it was not her fault and that he thought that she was beautiful and—

He raised his head when there was a light knock on the door and his heart skipped a beat. Was it ten already? Was it really her? Of course it was her, who else could it be? It was her and he was just losing precious time.

"Come in," he said, his voice throaty.

The door opened and Scorpius held his breath.

And there she was, walking quickly and silently inside and closing the door at her back so delicately that he almost didn't hear it at all.

Then she turned and looked at him and to Scorpius' surprise something happened to her face.

Her dejected expression changed almost instantaneously. Her eyes, which had looked so sad and miserable the moment before she had realized that it was him sitting there, were now shining and her face brightened up as if she had just been given the most beautiful present ever.

He tried to smile too, but he could only gasp in surprise when she sat at his feet and hugged his leg with her white arms, kissing his knee and brushing her cheeks against the coarse material of his trousers. Her face had changed again and Scorpius was crestfallen to see that she was crying now.

"I thought you would never come back," she sobbed, "I thought you hated me. I almost didn't want to go to work the other day but Taffy said that I had to because if you came and you didn't find me you would have been mad at me." She sniffled and Scorpius looked at her without being able to move as she kept kissing his leg and crying all over him. "I'm sorry I doubted you. You are my handsome knight, I should have known you'd come back for me." She kissed his thigh and pressed herself against his leg, her soft breasts pushing against his calf.

Scorpius felt electricity go through every nerve of his body as the beautiful girl hugged his leg. He finally let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and stretched a hand towards her head without touching her.

What was she saying? He was her handsome knight? She knew he would come back for her? She thought that he hated her? He felt a wave of pity for her. Pity and then desire and affection and _love_…

"Sc-Scarlet," he said softly, withdrawing his hand, afraid to feel too much if he touched her shiny hair with his bare palm.

She raised her tear-stained face and beamed at him, making him swallow almost noisily.

"Sit down," he said softly, "please…" And even though she was already sitting on the floor, she seemed to understand what he meant. She let his leg go and went to sit in the same exact spot as the first time, legs crossed under her, fingers quickly brushing away the tears as she kept smiling at him.

Merlin! How was he supposed to tell her that this was going to be the last time that he could see her? How could he tell her that he couldn't afford her? How could he break her heart? _And his own_…

But maybe he didn't have to tell her. Maybe they could talk for all the time and then the bell would have covered her last words to him and he wouldn't have felt too bad when he didn't come back. _Maybe_…

But time was flying again and he hadn't even talked to her properly yet.

"I… I brought you something," he said, picking up the book from the bed and stretching his hand towards her.

She stared at the book with surprise and something like apprehension painted on her face before her eyes rose on him. Her lips were slightly parted and she was breathing quickly in astonishment as if she had never received a present in all her life and didn't know what to do with it.

"It's for you," he said, stretching his arm a bit more. "Take it."

She raised an arm and closed her long, white fingers around it. "For me?" she asked softly as he let it go and she placed it in her lap. "Is it… is it…"

"A present," he finished. "It's _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_, the one I was talking to you about last time. Do you remember?"

She looked at him and nodded forcefully. "I remember everything, Scorpius," she whispered, causing him to bit his bottom lip at the way she said his name.

She lowered her eyes on the book and brushed her fingers on the blue cover almost reverentially, as if the volume was sacred. "Is it… a _present_?" she asked again, her voice tiny. "For me?"

"Yes," replied Scorpius, with an encouraging smile. "For you."

He could hear, rather than see her big, heavy tears falling on the cover of the tome and she seemed to be startled by them just as much as he was. She hastily brushed away the liquid salt from her eyes and cleaned the cover with her hands almost frantically, probably worried to ruin it.

"D-don't you like it?" stuttered Scorpius insecurely.

She looked at him with apprehension. "I'm sorry," she said hurriedly, "I love it. Thank you, thank you so much." She swallowed and repeated, "Thank you."

"But?" he asked softly.

Her bottom lip seemed to quiver. "But I've never received a present before," she admitted, her cheeks almost flushing in embarrassment. "Only from Father, only once."

"What?" he asked in disbelief. "That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. What… what do you get for your birthday?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"And Christmas?" he asked dryly.

"Nothing."

He felt queasy. He had received so many presents throughout his life that when he was younger he used to spend half of Christmas day opening them. And she had never received anything? Never? Scorpius Malfoy was starting to seriously hate Theodore Nott. He snorted inwardly, as if the fact that he would let someone so precious like Scarlet work there was not reason enough to loathe him.

"I'm glad I was the first one to give you something," he said softly.

She flushed at that. "Oh, Father gave me this," she told him, raising her leg to show him the ankle bracelet that she had secured there. Her dress rode up her leg and caused Scorpius' heartbeat to accelerate as he tried to focus on the heavy ring of gold covered in runes and not her white knee.

"It's very pretty," he said stiffly.

She nodded, bringing down her leg. "He says it'll protect me as well," she replied, "but it's heavy and I can never take it off." She lowered her eyes on the book again and murmured, "But I like your present more…"

"You'll read it, right?" he asked, with a soft smile upon his lips.

Her head jerked up to look at him, beaming, eyes shiny like two stars in the candlelight. "Oh yes," she replied feverishly, "I'll read it all and then I'll read it all again and again! And then I'll tell you about it!"

He felt his heart beating almost painfully at what her words implied.

"Because you're coming back, aren't you?" she asked hopefully. "You… you should come back every night. Stay here all night… with me…" She lowered her eyes and her beautiful neck moved as she swallowed. "You are nicer than the other men… they are not like you… you are my handsome knight… and I'm like Viridina…" she whispered. "You don't want to hurt me like they do…"

Scorpius closed his eyes, her words, her tone of voice, her pain-stricken face, everything in her made him ache. Everything in her made him want to come back and… stay all night, every night. But she surely didn't know how much she was worth. She surely didn't know what five hundred Galleons meant. If she did, maybe she wouldn't ask him that. Or maybe she knew and thought that he was rich beyond imagination.

He opened his eyes again and saw that she was looking expectantly at him, probably waiting for him to promise her that he would go back every night. He had to change the subject. He had to make her forget about it, to make her talk. "Scarlet," he said softly, cracking a smile, "why don't you tell me about you?" He swallowed and added, "Like… I don't know… What do you do all day?"

She lowered her eyes and for a moment she seemed crestfallen that she hadn't managed to wrest the promise to return there from him. But when she looked up at him again, she was smiling at him. "I read," she replied, "I read all day." She clutched the book he had given her to her chest now, as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

"You read? That's all?" he asked surprised.

She shook her head. "Then Taffy brings me lunch and then she bathes me," she continued, "and then I read a bit more before dinner…"

"Who's Taffy?" She had mentioned her before, but he hadn't asked her.

Scarlet smiled even more warmly at that. "She's my only friend," she replied sweetly, "she's my house-elf. She's always taken care of me, ever since I can remember."

A house-elf-nanny-friend, the very notion made Scorpius wrinkle his nose. House-elves were made to order around, not to be treated as friends.

Scorpius swallowed and tried to smile softly at her. "I'm your friend too, now," he whispered, before he could stop himself.

She beamed at him. "Oh, yes, yes!" she said with enthusiasm. "I'm sorry, you are! You are my friend! Thank you!"

"I… n-no problem," he stuttered at her enthusiasm.

"Can I be your friend too?" she asked, her voice all shy now.

"Of course," he replied quickly, "I'd be honoured if you accepted to be my friend."

She beamed again and Scorpius thought that he couldn't get enough of her smiles.

"And you never go out for a walk or something?" he asked her gently.

Her eyes veiled with misery at his words. "Never," she replied softly, "last time I asked Father to go out he slapped me. I've never been outside, in all my life." She sighed. "The other girls can go out, and Father and Uncle Gregory go out all the time, but I can't. They say it's dangerous for a silly little girl like me." A smile painted on her face. "Maybe I could ask Father if I can go outside with you!" she exclaimed. "You would protect me, wouldn't you?"

Scorpius' eyes widened. He didn't have a good feeling about that. Somehow he could only imagine Nott punishing her really hard before writing to his father to tell him to keep him away from his daughter. But Scorpius didn't care what his father might do to him, what he really wanted was for her not to be punished. He couldn't imagine Nott's punishments to be anywhere near tame. "No," he said gently, "don't ask him… maybe when you are of age…"

She nodded submissively. "Scorpius," she called him, "what do you do all day?"

He started to tell her what he did all day long: sleeping late, talking to his mother, going on strolls outside the Manor when the weather was nice and many other things and she listened to him in rapture, nodding and swooning even at the silliest things.

"And I read," he added truthfully. Well, for now it was true at least. He had spent the whole week reading about Viridina and that handsome knight of hers. She was definitely a silly witch and he was sure that the book was not to be taken too seriously, but it looked like Scarlet didn't know that. He smiled at her and told her, "I read the tale of Viridina…"

"Oh," she sighed, beaming, "isn't she fantastic? And the knight? Isn't he just as brave and handsome as you are?" She flushed as she said that, but kept looking at him as if he really was a knight.

Scorpius looked away, his cheeks heating too. "Yeah," he replied vaguely, wanting more than anything to change the subject. "Anyway, next week I'll be back at Hogwarts, so I won't have much time to read, except for my text books…"

She lowered her eyes, her hands squeezing the book against her chest. "You go to Hogwarts," she said softly, "is it… is it just as wonderful as the book says?"

He smiled at her. "It's ten times better," he replied, "that book is boring. Hogwarts is gigantic, and full of moving portraits and places where you can sit and read and there's a library that you would love, and outside there's a lake and people go there after their exams, when it's nice and warm, and swim and…" His voice trailed away as he looked at her. She had lowered her auburn eyelashes, her face suddenly miserable as she stared at the floor.

"Scarlet?" he called her unsurely.

She blinked a couple of times and murmured, "I waited for my letter for Hogwarts when I was eleven, just like the book said." She bit her bottom lip. "I don't think owls go underground though, do they?" She sighed. "Maybe they do, and I was not destined to go. That's what Father said, he said that I was not worthy to go there."

Scorpius could feel the rage boiling inside of him at that admission. How could Nott say something like that? To his own daughter? Did he have no heart? Or maybe… was she a Squib? Did she have no magic? She didn't look like she owned a wand, but that didn't mean that she couldn't do magic. He had to ask her that. Maybe he could let her use his wand a little to see if she could do magic at all.

He opened his mouth to ask her exactly that when the bell rang for the first time.

Scarlet's eyes darted above the bed, towards the sound, her already fair skin seemed to become even paler. "There… there must be something wrong with the bell," she said, her voice shaky, "it's too early, it's barely been an hour…"

Scorpius swallowed noisily as he looked at her with misery. "I… I only had an hour today," he let her know, his voice quivering almost like hers.

She opened her mouth wide in surprise, her eyes huge. "Why?" she asked crestfallen, as if she were asking why he had slapped her.

He looked at her, unsure of what to say to her. Because he didn't have enough money, because she was busy with other clients, because he couldn't be there with her. "I… I…" that was all he could stutter to her.

She went to him and knelt in front of his legs, grasping his thigh with a hand while she clutched the book with the other. "Promise me you'll come back," she said, her voice shaky, "please, please, Scorpius, promise me!"

Merlin! He couldn't promise her that. He didn't know if he could come back at all. He didn't have all that money, or better he did have all that money, but his parents would never let him spend it on her. His father would never finance him again. But that only meant that those were the last few minutes that he saw her, and it broke his heart to see her like that, pleading him to come back with her beseeching eyes and her quivering voice, looking like she could as well die of a broken heart if he didn't reassure her.

But he couldn't lie to her.

He looked at Scarlet with pity and shame. Oh! How much he wanted to go back to her! Every night even, like she had asked him to! "Scarlet," he murmured, "I'd love to come back to you, but…"

Her bottom lip quivered even more, and her eyes shone with tears as she waited for him to finish his sentence.

He pressed his lips together and finally whispered, "I'll try, I promise."

She nodded meekly, big, shiny tears spilling over the corner of her eyes. He felt his heart ache as he stretched a hand to brush away the tears, not wanting his last image of her to be that of a crying girl. But the damn bell started to ring again and she was terribly quick to jerk her head way and stand up. She bolted for the door before he could even react and soon she was gone and so was the bell.

Her flaming hair was the last thing he saw.

But Scorpius knew that it was her pain-stricken face that would have haunted his dreams.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes:** Soooo, you love me! Thank you so much for the lovely comments you left on the previous chapter! You made my day and I will most certainly keep uploading chapter after chapter, just for _you_ my faithful readers! I'm so glad you are loving this story just as much as _I_ love it! Ah, many of you want me to free Scarlet incredibly soon, but you understand that the plot needs to be built up a little, right? There are 28 chapters in total (still 20 to go after this one) and I'm sure you don't want things to be too rushed right? Okay, that said, heads up for the last scene in this chapter. Not for the faint of heart. But enjoy the chapter if you can.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Astoria looked at Scorpius with a little frown between her eyebrows. She had never seen him reading. Well, she had, she had just never seen him reading for his own enjoyment, and so strenuously. As if her son had just discovered the pleasure of a good book and a nice, warm fire crackling in the hearth. Ever since Draco had paid for his two hours of cavorting with a prostitute in Theodore Nott's brothel, Scorpius had started reading as if his life depended on it.

And even though the situation was absolutely despicable and she had been seething ever since Draco had told her about his idea of a 'perfect' Christmas present for their son, she couldn't help finding that turn of events rather comical. Did he have to lose his virginity to pick up the hobby of reading? How were the two things even linked anyway?

But right at that moment, the last thing Astoria wanted to do was laughing. In fact, she pushed the door of the library completely open and strode in there with a letter from her parents in her hand and wearing a severe expression over her face.

"Scorpius," she called him sternly.

He raised his eyes from the book and glanced at her. "Mother," he acknowledged her, before looking back down at the book.

"_The Toad and the Pot of Gold_?" she asked, glancing at the cover. "Aren't you reading too much lately?"

"You always complain that I don't read enough," he pointed out lazily.

She pressed her lips tightly together. He was right. "Scorpius," she continued, "you are going back to Hogwarts tomorrow."

"Yes," he replied, turning a page, "and yes, I'm going to miss you, Mother."

She flared her nostrils. "If you are going back to Hogwarts tomorrow," she continued, "why would you ask your grandparents for money?"

His eyes snapped up to look at her. "How do you know?" he asked almost angrily.

She pushed the letter under his nose. "They just wrote to me," she informed him sternly, "asking why you needed such a sum of money. Five hundred Galleons, Scorpius!"

He grabbed the letter from her and skimmed through it, probably looking for a positive or negative answer to his request. They didn't give any, though, they just informed their daughter of what he had asked and wanted to know _why_ he had asked such a thing.

He snorted and gave the letter back to his mother when he noticed that they didn't give any positive or negative reply.

"I need an advance on my inheritance," he said curtly.

"Why?" she asked, her tone suspicious.

He lowered his eyes and snapped the book closed. "I can't tell you, Mother," he replied curtly. "It's private."

"I'm your mother, Scorpius," she snapped heatedly. "And I want to know what do you need this money for."

He stood up from the armchair where he was seated and shook his head. "You wouldn't understand," he said with a hiss, walking past her.

"Scorpius, I'm not finished," she thundered.

But he didn't stop and soon all she could hear where his steps up the stairs and the door of his room slamming shut.

ooo

"Scorpius!" His father's voice was the angriest hiss Scorpius had ever heard in his life. "Your mother informed me."

Scorpius darkened, he crossed his arms on his chest and raised his eyes to look into his father's. "And?" he asked hotly, bravely staring back at him.

"I thought you agreed not to see her anymore," he hissed.

"No," Scorpius replied calmly, "I agreed not to ask you any more money to go and see her. I can ask someone else."

"I told you not to take another appointment with her," growled his father.

"I haven't," replied Scorpius nonchalantly. "Not yet," he added with a sneer. He felt rebellious and ready to answer back to anything his father would tell him. Nothing and nobody would stand between himself and Scarlet. He had to see her again. He wanted to hear her telling him about _The Tale of the Three Brothers_. Would she have liked it? Would she have liked the present?

"You are not to do it!" he snapped, slamming his fist on the table. "Don't you dare disobey me!"

Scorpius glared daggers at him. "I'm of age," he snapped back, "I can do whatever I want."

"Not as long as you live under this roof," hissed his father.

Scorpius' lips quirked upwards. "Well, I'm lucky I will be leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow, then, Father."

There was a vein on his father's forehead and for the first time in his life, Scorpius saw it pulse dangerously as the man glowered at him. Had his father been a real dragon, and did not only have the name of the creature, surely smoke would have come out of his nostrils at that very moment. But he wasn't, and Scorpius couldn't help thinking how unfair the old man was with him. _He_ had been the one to pay for his first two hours with Scarlet, as he told him cheerfully to go and enjoy himself at the brothel. And now he was seething if Scorpius kept going back to her. Would he have understood if he told him that he didn't go there to have sex with her? What would he have said if Scorpius told him that he had never even touched her? Would he have laughed at him? Or been angry at him? Most probably both.

Suddenly, though, his father's mouth twisted upwards in a disdainful sneer. "You are not falling in love with a prostitute, are you, Scorpius?" he asked in a hiss.

Scorpius felt his mouth go dry. _He thought he was_. He thought he was falling hard in love with her. For real. He had never felt like that with anybody else before. He dreamed of her, he closed his eyes and saw her, he thought about her every moment of the day, he was burning with desire to touch her and kiss her and tread his fingers in her hair. Naturally, nobody was to know about that, especially not his father. "That's preposterous," he replied lightly, looking away and feigning indignation.

"I'm glad to hear that," replied his father icily, "because, not only it would be a despicable and scandalous thing indeed in case someone came to know about it. But I might have also mentioned that she's Nott's favourite, am I correct?" He pursed his lips and added, "She graces his bed every night, I don't think he would like to know that you are pining for her."

Scorpius' eyes widened as he sucked in his breath. _What_? He kept her segregated, he made her work as a prostitute, he never gave her any presents, he didn't let her go to Hogwarts and… _he slept with her_? He felt a wave of nausea rising in his stomach. She called him _father_, she said he was her father. Had she lied to him? She hadn't looked like she was lying.

_But Nott didn't look like a father to her_, thought Scorpius.

"Father," he murmured his voice throaty, "have you… have you ever seen her?"

His father glared at him furiously. "What are you implying, Scorpius? That I amuse myself with those girls like you do?" he asked with scorn.

Scorpius' cheeks flushed in anger, and he lowered his eyes at that. How dared he? _He had been the one to book his first appointment with her!_ "No," he seethed, "I'm implying that she said that Nott is her father and since you've known him for years, maybe you've seen her at some dinner or some kind of social event."

Suddenly, silence descended in the study. His father didn't reply for a long moment and when Scorpius raised his eyes to look back up at him, he saw that he looked slightly unsettled. "No, I've never seen her," he finally replied in a murmur, "and I wasn't aware of Nott's… _inclinations_. Evidently, my friend knows how to keep a secret hidden from prying eyes and ears."

Scorpius swallowed and stood up. Of course, that of Nott was a most hideous secret that even amongst the old, slimy clients of his brothel would have been at least frowned upon. Scorpius was glad to see that his father looked genuinely upset at the news that his school friend shared his bed with his own daughter.

He looked coldly at his father for some long moments, studying his dark expression while he wasn't looking at him. Finally, he said flatly, "Excuse me, Father, I need to go get ready for tomorrow."

His father looked back at him just as coldly, but Scorpius turned on his heels and started to walk briskly towards the door.

As he opened the door and stepped into the corridor, his father's voice reached him in a hiss, "Even if you manage to get the money from your grandparents, Scorpius, how do you plan to sneak out to a whorehouse during school?"

Scorpius didn't reply, but he slammed the door at his back a bit more forcefully than he had intended as he walked out of the study.

He didn't know.

_He just didn't know._

ooo

"Malfoy. Malfoy!"

Scorpius blinked and groaned even before his eyes rose to look at Rose Weasley standing on the door of his compartment.

"What?" he grunted. "I'm reading. Isn't that what you always do? Don't you always say that when you're reading we can't disturb you?"

She crossed her arms on her chest and looked at him sternly. "Why aren't you patrolling with Albus?"

He took a deep breath and finally closed the book in his lap. "Because it's not our turn yet," he explained slowly, "our turn is at eleven."

"It's eleven thirty."

He blinked again. Surely he was fonder than he thought of this new hobby of his, because time flew when he had a book in his hands. "Well," he started unsurely, "my point exactly, it's not eleven."

"Al said that you didn't show up for patrol," she said sternly.

"He's lying."

"I am not!" said a voice from within the compartment, causing Scorpius to startle slightly before he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Potter took off his hood and his head appeared in midair. "Told you he would have said that it's all my fault."

"Hey," snapped Scorpius, "that's against the school rules."

"What is?" asked Potter lightly. "Telling on you when you don't show up for your Prefect duties?"

"No, having an Invisibility Cloak and use it at school," said Scorpius waspishly. "And I was busy."

"Reading?" asked Potter with a snort. "Or maybe doing your last minute homework?"

"Please," he replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Finished that ages ago. You should know that, Potter, since I do better than you in every subject."

"In your dreams, maybe," he replied snappishly.

"Yeah, I don't dream about you."

"Wow," said Weasley, shaking her head. "Can you both just shut up?" she asked cheerfully. "Okay, since you haven't shown up for your patrol, and you are going around under an Invisibility Cloak—"

"Which is not against the school rules, Rose," snapped Potter, "Dad used it all the time."

She ignored him. "You are going to be paired up for two months for basically everything."

"What?" asked Scorpius outraged.

"No!" shouted Potter.

"If you don't shut up now, I'm going to make it three months…" she said in an almost sing-song voice.

"Rose, but why?" protested Potter.

"Three months it is," she said sweetly. "And it's because you have to learn how to get along and collaborate."

"Why?" asked Potter exasperatedly. "We haven't done that in seven years, you don't think we can start now…"

"Four months?" she asked with the shadow of a sneer on her lips.

"Bloody hell, Potter, stop talking," groaned Scorpius, and luckily he did shut up.

"See?" she said satisfied. "You're already collaborating."

Scorpius glared at her. "Get out of my compartment," he hissed before adding in a low growl, "please, Weasley…"

Weasley glared at him. "You are patrolling again at two," she said, "don't even think about forgetting about it." She turned on her heels and stormed out.

To Scorpius' surprise, Potter closed the door and collapsed on one of the seats in front of him, before taking off the Invisibility Cloak.

"What are you doing?" asked Scorpius suspiciously.

"What does it look like?" asked Potter back.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "It looks like you are getting comfortable to stay here."

"Well, aren't you just too smart for your own good?" he asked mockingly.

Scorpius took a deep breath. "Why are you doing that?"

Potter looked at him as if he were out of his mind. "You missed a patrol and Rose paired us up for three months—"

"It would have been two if you had kept your mouth shut…"

"If you miss another patrol, she will definitely give us detention," he said, opening his school bag and drawing out a book.

Scorpius snorted. "She can't do that," he said nervously.

"Try her," he replied calmly, opening the volume. A picture flew to the floor and Scorpius followed it with his eyes. It was the picture of a little girl, long red hair and a wide grin.

Scorpius felt his heartbeat increase. She looked familiar, she looked a lot like someone he knew. Someone he was obsessing about.

He tried to reach for it to have a better a look, but Potter was quicker and grabbed the photo from the floor.

Scorpius looked up at him and saw that Potter was putting the picture back in the book. His face suddenly dark.

"Your sister?" he asked softly, without being able to keep his mouth shut.

"Yes," he replied curtly. "I don't want to talk about her." And with that he raised the book in front of his eyes and the compartment was suddenly filled with an uneasy silence.

ooo

"I knew you would be happy," said Goyle with a chuckle.

Nott glanced at his business partner from over the Prophet that Goyle had just brought him. "They never learn, do they?" he asked with a smirk. "_Auror Edward Lupin encounters another dead end with the unicorn trade in Wales_," he read out loud from the front page. "They are never going to stop looking for her either."

Goyle shook his thick head, barking a laughter. "Never," he agreed. "We really had the best idea when we locked her in here."

"_We_?" asked Nott, placing the Prophet on the desk of his office. "I'm sorry, but if I remember correctly, I was the one who had to do all the work, while you were shaking like a leaf and telling me to take her back to her parents or to kill her quickly."

Goyle had the decency to flush. "Bloody sodding hell, Nott," he grunted, "_you_ had the best idea… happy?" He brought his hand down to his groin and scratched his balls. "By the way," he added nonchalantly, "where is she? I haven't seen her in two weeks. Shouldn't she come to say hello to her old Uncle Greg?"

Nott quirked an eyebrow. "Missing her?" he asked snidely.

"You bet," he replied hotly. "I keep dreaming about her and I wake up as hard as a rock."

Nott snorted at that. "Duty before pleasure," he said sternly, "first tell me the business with the Healer."

Goyle nodded reluctantly. "All good," he said. "I tried to reason with him, as a good mediator should do." He smirked at what he probably thought was a fun joke or a witty thing to say. It wasn't and Nott just rolled his eyes. "And when he kept saying that he would inform the authorities about Scarlet's true identity, I killed him, like a good business partner should do."

Nott looked at him, unconvinced. "And?" he asked haughtily.

"And he's dead, end of tale," he replied curtly, "call Scarlet now, I'm thinking about her and this is becoming very uncomfortable." He pointed to his groin where his semi-hard erection was already showing.

Nott ignored him. "And what did you do with the body?" he asked impatiently.

Now it was Goyle's time to roll his beady eyes. "I stabbed him and thrown him in the Thames," he mocked. "What do you think? I used the Killing Curse, and left him in Knockturn Alley. They'll think he was in some kind of shady business." He chuckled at that. "Which he was really…" he added as an afterthought.

"Did anybody see you?" asked Nott, not so sure about his partner's skills to kill a man and do it secretly.

"No, Nott," he replied impatiently. "I was good. If you don't believe me, wait and see that the Aurors will never manage to link us to his death."

Nott quirked an eyebrow. "And now? Did you find a new Healer for the girls?" He narrowed his eyes. "Maybe someone who is not going to be smart enough to notice that my dear daughter and Potter's daughter are the same person?"

"I'm working on it," he replied gruffly, "we don't want to end up with another case like that one, do we?"

Nott considered his words for a moment. The girls were very demanding, and health coverage was in their contract after all. He certainly didn't want a mutiny in his brothel. And he slept with Scarlet every night, he wanted himself to be protected as well. "Okay," he finally conceded, "but hurry. You know the girls, they get feisty if they don't have what they want."

Goyle snorted. "Give them Scarlet for a day to play with," he laughed, "they hate her with a passion." He brought his hand between his legs and smirked. "I don't, though, so if you could call her now, you would make me really happy…"

Nott rolled his eyes again, but snapped his fingers and Taffy appeared at once near the door, eyes huge. "Go fetch my daughter," he barked at the creature, who squealed in surprise as she saw Goyle sitting there with a smirk on his face. "Now, elf!" he snapped when she didn't move.

Taffy quivered and bowed, her long nose brushing the floor, then she disappeared again. She was back in the room with Scarlet's wrist secured between in her fingers in a matter of seconds.

"Scarlet," said Nott with a smirk as he surveyed her. She was clutching a book to her chest, her beautiful eyes were wide and getting wider as she stared at Goyle, her lips parted in surprise and apprehension at having been transported right into her father's office in the middle of the afternoon.

"Uncle Gregory is here to see you," he said, gesturing towards Goyle, "he has been away on business for two weeks. Go, say hello, dear."

She swallowed as Goyle stretched out a hand for her to take and she took an unsure step towards him, her dress fluctuating around her ankles. But then she stopped and lowered her eyes and swallowed again, more noisily, as if she was crestfallen to have been called there.

"Go, I said," snapped Nott, a hand reaching out for the book in her hands. "And you're always reading," he barked, tearing the book from her, "I wonder how long before you go blind."

She turned to look at the book that he had slapped on the desk, her face painting with much more fear than Nott deemed necessary for the fate of the stupid volume. He always gave them back to her anyway, so he really didn't know why she was fretting.

"Scarlet," he grunted warningly.

Scarlet swallowed a third time, but Nott suspected that her mouth was already dry. She glanced at the book once more before walking towards the armchair where Goyle was sitting. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her to him, making her fall in his lap. She gasped softly, and placed her hands on his broad chest to steady herself. He wormed a hand in her hair and brought her face down to his.

"Hmm," he whispered, "you always smell so good, Scarlet." He stretched his fat neck until he finally reached her and then he was kissing her. Nott looked amusedly at the couple as Goyle pushed his tongue into her mouth, and Scarlet tried to kiss him back as well as she could. The sloppy and lewd sounds filled the office, until Goyle finally let her go and she had to gasp for air.

He pushed his face into her hair and grabbed her hand, placing it on his member. "I was thinking about you, Scarlet," he grunted in her ear, "and I'm all hard now. You have to take care of that, baby girl."

Her bottom lip quivered and she nodded softly, her eyes staring in front of her as if she was ashamed to look at Goyle's face.

"Good girl," he murmured, kissing her wetly on her cheek. "Good girl," he repeated as he opened his legs and pushed her down, until she was kneeling in front of him.

She almost seemed ready to cry as she unbuttoned Goyle's trousers and fished out his cock. She wrapped her white hand at the base and closed her eyes as she opened her lips to engulf the head with her mouth.

Goyle scrunched his eyes up and moaned another, "Good girl," making Nott smirk as he leaned back against the desk and bumped into the book he had taken from her. He turned distractedly towards it and narrowed his eyes.

_The Tales of Beedle the Bard_.

He didn't know they had it amongst their books. In fact, he was quite sure they didn't have it. Something someone said right after the end of the Second Wizarding War about Potter being a descendant of the Peverells, and the Peverells being the actual brothers in the tale of the Hallows. He didn't want Scarlet to even indirectly know about her inheritance and thus that book had never been amongst the ones that he let her read.

He picked up the volume and turned to look at Scarlet. Goyle had his hands on her head, his fingers in her hair now, and he was pushing her against him, slurping and choking sounds were the only things that left her mouth now.

"Scarlet," he said sternly, "where did you get this book?"

She tried to pull back, but Goyle grasped her hair almost spasmodically and kept her in place as he pushed into her mouth viciously.

Nott rolled his eyes. "Goyle," he said warningly.

Goyle let out a whimper as he let her go. "Merlin, Nott," he grunted, a hand on his saliva-covered erection, "it's just a sodding book, leave the poor girl alone."

Scarlet fell back on her heels, spit falling from her lips to her chin, and face flushed. She coughed and wiped her mouth dramatically, before she raised her eyes on Nott.

"I asked you something, Scarlet," he said impatiently.

She coughed a bit more and finally choked out, "I… I… it was…"

"It was what?" thundered Nott. "A present?"

She lowered her eyes and nodded, but before she could add anything else, Goyle's hand was again in her hair and he was pushing his erection once more past her lips as he started to fuck her face, uncaring of the tears that were pooling in the corners of her eyes and of her hands which were trying to find leverage on his thighs or against his stomach.

"A present from who, I wonder," said Nott as he opened the book.

And there on the first page he had it. The answer.

Because in a beautiful writing there was a dedication.

_To Scorpius_

_From Mother_

_On your fifth birthday_

So, Malfoy had brought her a present. _Interesting_.

"Has the Malfoy boy come back after his Christmas present?" Nott asked Goyle, his eyes two slits.

Goyle grunted as he kept Scarlet's head pushed against his pelvis. Her face was all flushed now, tears were streaming down her cheeks as she choked on the erection shoved deep in her throat.

"I… don't… know," growled Goyle. He gave a sharp thrust with his hips and howled almost like an animal, before starting a litany of, "_Swallow, swallow, swallow_…"

Scarlet managed to gasp around his erection, her back arching with a spasm as she swallowed Goyle's come and pushed against his lower abdomen to get free from his fingers. But his hand was like a vice around her head and he kept himself buried in her mouth for a long moment, until she started to squirm for air and her eyelids started to close.

When he let her go she fell back on the floor, curling herself up in a ball as she spluttered Goyle's seed and her spit on the carpet. She brought her hands to her throat and let out a loud sob that had Goyle laughing and Nott rolling his eyes at the scene.

"Now," said Nott in a business-like fashion, "has Scorpius Malfoy come back after his first two-hour-appointment, Scarlet?"

She massaged her throat and brushed the tears away from her face as she looked up at him. Her abused her lips were quivering in fear. _Pathetic_. She nodded softly, and finally pushed her hands on the floor to sit up.

"And did he give you this book?" he asked her, closing the volume and waving it in front of her.

"Yes, Father," she rasped out, her voice a low, hoarse whisper. She looked at him as if she wanted to silently beg him to give her the book back.

Goyle chuckled and tucked himself back in. "Isn't that sweet?" he mocked.

Nott glared at him, before returning his gaze upon Scarlet. "You are not allowed to receive presents from anybody but me," he said in an angry hiss. "Do you understand me?"

She swallowed the last remnants of Goyle's seed in her mouth, probably without even noticing, and lowered her eyes, fresh tears falling down her cheeks again.

He grabbed the tome and turned towards the fireplace. "I hope you are happy with yourself, Scarlet," he snapped, "making me destroy a perfectly fine book." He heard her gasp and sob a loud "No," as he threw the volume into fire.

To his surprise, Scarlet was kneeling next to the hearth in a flash, stupidly trying to salvage the volume from the flames.

He had to grab her hair and pull her back to keep her beautiful skin from getting burned.

"Stupid girl," he snapped, "do you want to burn yourself?"

But she was shaking and sobbing and her eyes were fixed on the burning book and its fluttering pages that were slowly consumed by the flames.

"Stupid girl," he repeated almost affectionately, pulling her to him and gazing upon her face as she kept her eyes low. "Taffy," he called, tilting Scarlet's head back to look at her dirty chin and her swollen lips.

The house-elf squealed in a corner.

"Take her to the bathroom," he said, still looking at Scarlet, "scrub her clean and calm down this silly girl."

"Yes Master," said the house-elf, bowing.

"Stop your tears, Scarlet," he ordered her, "it was just a book. You can go and read that tale of that witch that you like so much…"

She nodded submissively and looked back to the fire, and he finally let her go and let Taffy disappear her with her.

Goyle clapped his hands in a mocking fashion. "Great parenting skills," he laughed, "she will cry throughout the evening and I'm sure every single client is going to send her back."

Nott snorted. "You don't understand, my dear thick friend, do you?" he hissed. "The house-elves said that Scarlet didn't need cleaning after two hours with Draco's son, and the bed was not unmade."

Goyle waved his hand. "He might have cleaned her himself as a courtesy, two hours are a long time and he is so well-behaved," he pointed out with a sneer, "and the bed is the last place where I like to have sex."

Nott shook his head. Something was going on with that boy and he would have to keep an eye on him and Scarlet before they did something stupid.

And if they were anything like their fathers, they would surely do something stupid.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Oh man! I feel so bad because so many of you thought that the book was going to do something... Well, it did something... more proof that Nott is pure evil! We didn't need it though, did we? Sorry for that scene!


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes:** Your reviews, my dear reviewers, are the best! Thank you so much for them! :D You make me feel so loved. Soooo freaking loved! I will naturally reply to each and every single one of you - logged in users - and I'm sorry if my replies get really long and boring at times! It's just my way to show you how much I appreciate your feedback! I love you so much!

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

"Harry is losing hope, Hermione, I can see it in his eyes when he comes home. He never talks about new leads anymore, he keeps trying to talk me into organizing a memorial, I'm sure he thinks she's dead…" Ginny shook with sobs and tightened her arms around Hermione's shoulders, her tear-stained face pressed in her sister-in-law's jumper and soaked it with her liquid salt.

Hermione opened her mouth to tell her something, but she couldn't find anything to say. She glanced at Molly, who was looking at her daughter with wide, teary eyes and quivering lips from the armchair closer to the fireplace and patted Ginny's back soothingly.

"I know she's not dead," sniffled Ginny, "I know it. She's my daughter, a mother can feel these things." She raised her head from Hermione's chest to look at her own mother. "Am I right, Mum?" she asked with heart-wrenching desperation in her voice. "Didn't you know when Fred was dead? Didn't you feel it?"

Molly brought her plump fingers to her eyes to dry them hastily, surely she wanted to pretend to look stronger than what she actually felt as she stared at her daughter crying. She had to look strong, for Ginny's sake. "Ginny, that was different," she said, trying hard to smile comfortingly without really managing, "there was a war going on…"

"But you knew, didn't you?" she asked vehemently.

Hermione cupped her cheek and sighed. "Ginny, darling," she said softly, "look at me, dear." She smiled at her when her sister-in-law turned to look at her. "We all hope that she's alive, you know, our little Lily."

"No," she said, shaking her head, "no, _I know it_. I don't just hope, I'm sure she's alive." She brought a hand to her heart and pressed her palm against her chest. "I feel it in here."

Hermione looked at her and knew that Ginny could see all the misery and pity in her eyes. She was sure that Ginny couldn't possibly feel that. She was sure that the redheaded woman's hope let her believe things that she couldn't possibly know they were true for certain. Hermione hoped that Lily was still alive as well, naturally, but after six years she had started to fear that her little niece was probably pushing daisies somewhere in England. And if she weren't, Hermione's heart clenched at the thought of what had happened to her.

Because, really… What had happened to her? Who had taken her? Why had they taken her? She shuddered at the very thought of what she might have gone through, if naturally, they hadn't killed her the very same day of her kidnapping. Killed her and hid the body so well the Aurors would never find it and would keep looking for her in vain for years. A cruel trick that would be. A cruel trick indeed.

But if Hermione had been at Ginny's place and Rose had been the one to be kidnapped, or Hugo, she would be crying over Ginny's shoulder at that very moment, probably lamenting the same thing, saying that she knew her child was alive and that she could feel it deep inside of her.

"When they find her…" whispered Ginny, snapping her out of her thoughts, "when they find her, I'm going to buy her all the clothes that she wanted and that I never did. I'm going to buy her the new Firebolt, the one she kept asking for her birthday and I told her that she had to wait because… because she was too young to own a broomstick… I… I'm going to let her have ice-cream for breakfast like she always wanted to do… and chocolate chip cookies at midnight. If she wants to have chips for lunch and dinner every single day of her life she will have them… If she still wants to sleep in our bed between Harry and me… I'll let her sleep there… every night. If… if she…" But then Ginny's voice broke and she started to cry in earnest and Hermione couldn't do anything but pull Ginny's head against her chest and caress her long, red hair, hoping, without hope, to soothe her friend.

ooo

Scorpius' days were slow and boring at Hogwarts. His nights were restless and long. All he could think about was Scarlet. He had written to his grandparents again, making up lies about a business he wanted to pursue as soon as he was out of school, needing the money and not wanting to ask his father about it.

They hadn't replied yet. And he waited and waited every day growing more and more impatient. The very thought that night after night Scarlet had to endure a client after the other and that he couldn't go and be with her, not even for one hour, to make her happy and maybe bring her more books, made him ache.

His father had asked him if he were falling in love with her, and he had scoffed at that, but he can't help thinking that he probably was. _He had never felt like that with anybody at all_. He kept thinking that. He had just never felt like that with anybody. He had had crushes and girls had crushed on him too, and he had had his fair share of girlfriends, but… it had never been quite like that. _He had never felt like that_.

He hadn't even almost touched her at all. She had always touched his clothed legs, imploringly, lovingly, hugging him like a little slave would do to her master. He had never touched her face, never hugged her body, never glided his fingers in her shiny, soft hair. He had never even kissed her. And yet, he felt like he couldn't breathe when he thought about her. He felt like he was in pain when he was not there with her.

Which was ridiculous, really, because he had only seen her twice. Three hours in total. One hundred and eighty minutes. One thousand Galleons. And that was not a romance novel. He was not the handsome knight who saved the damsel in distress and fell in love with her with a single glance.

But Scarlet thought that he was. She really did think that he was her handsome knight. That he was there for her. And only for her.

And Merlin! He wanted to believe that too. He wanted to believe that he was there for her too, just for her. He wanted to believe that he would have taken her from that place, brought her to his Manor and lived happily ever after with her. _Just like Viridina_. She deserved that. She deserved to be taken away from her father and the life he had imposed on her.

But he was just too spineless for that. He knew it. Scarlet shouldn't have relied on him, because he was just a self-centred git and a fool, a spoiled young man brought up with the idea that nothing mattered but himself.

And he knew that in the end he would have just hurt her.

And despite that, all he wanted to do was to see her again.

ooo

"Rose, I didn't know you would come to Tomes and Scrolls too! What a wonderful surprise," said Emeric Zabini brightly, his dark eyes shining with happiness.

Rose looked at him and sighed. "Of course you knew, Emeric," she replied calmly, "I wrote it to you in the diary this morning." She placed her hands on her hips and added, "That's why I told you to meet me later." Couldn't one book-loving, young woman have a bit of quiet time in the only bookshop in Hogsmeade?

"Really?" he asked, with a dumb smile that made Rose roll her eyes only half-heartedly.

"Well, since you're here," she said slowly, "can you get me that book up there? The one about advanced charms. I can't reach it and—oh, thank you."

He grinned at her once again as he handed her the volume and Rose smiled back distractedly, opening the tome to have a look at it. That was exactly what she needed to prepare for the Auror training. Yes, of course she knew that there were still five months to go before her N.E.W.T.'s and then another three before the training itself, but she was already at a perfectly fine point with her studies, having finished revising most subjects during the Christmas holidays and was ready to tackle the most advanced spells that she would need as an Auror.

"So," said Emeric, leaning against a shelf. "You want to go to the Three Broomsticks after you've finished here? Maybe get a Butterbeer? I'll buy…"

She closed the book and sighed. "I told you, we need to go and prepare tomorrow's Prefect meeting later," she reminded him, "we still need to decide who should—"

"Weasley."

Rose stopped dead as Scorpius Malfoy, jumping quite out of nowhere apparently, came to stand in front of her. His face was serious as he stared at her from above his Slytherin's scarf.

"Malfoy," she greeted him unsurely. What did he want from her anyway? He usually was impossible to find when she needed him to do some extra Prefect work.

"Scorpius," said Emeric impatiently, "can't you come back later? We are talking here…"

Malfoy turned to glare at him. "I have to ask something to Weasley, can you wait five minutes before you go on flirting obscenely with her?"

Emeric flushed, he stuttered something that sounded like, "Not flirting," before he pretended to be interested in something on the higher shelves and walked away.

Malfoy turned towards Rose again, his face grave. "Weasley," he said, "you like to read, right?"

She nodded hesitantly. Yes, and it was not a secret. Everybody knew she liked to read. Everybody teased her about it, Malfoy had teased her and called her names that had to do with her hobby ever since they were in their first year.

"And you're a girl…"

She raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "Well spotted indeed," she replied dryly, "Al is right when he says that you are too intelligent for your own good."

Scorpius took a deep breath, as if he wanted to try to keep himself calm and definitely not start a quarrel. "Listen," he said in a business-like voice, "I need a favour."

"And you're asking me?" she asked suspiciously.

He nodded stiffly. "I need to ask you something," he said, raising two books in front of her eyes. "I want to buy a present for someone who likes to read."

Rose grinned. "A lady friend?" she giggled for a few seconds, before her girly expression was replaced by a frown as she remembered something. He had had tons of girlfriends and he had never asked her for any advice at all. Actually, they had never talked almost at all in seven years, only to call each other names and, now that she was Head Girl and he was a Prefect, to boss him around. Why would he ask for her… what did he want again?

"Yes," he replied, his face darkening, "a _lady friend_. She likes to read romance novels. Which… which one?"

Rose looked down at the two books in his hands and read the titles. _The Further Adventures of Viridina the Witch and Her Beloved Knight_ or _The Damsel in the Tower and the Wizard Who Loved Her_. She wrinkled her nose at both titles. "Those are really sappy, Malfoy…" she said truthfully. "And the first one looks like it's part of a series."

Malfoy nodded. "She has the first one," he murmured, looking at it, "she loves it."

Rose pursed her lips. "Then go with that one," she suggested, before grinning again. "So, who's the lucky witch?"

Malfoy put the second book down on a shelf and swallowed. "Nobody that you know," he said flatly.

"If she likes to read, I've probably seen her in the library," pointed out Rose, crossing her arms.

"She doesn't go at Hogwarts," he replied grimly.

"An older witch," she giggled. "Are you meeting her at Madam Puddifoot's later?"

To her surprise he darkened even more, before replying a curt, "No," and walking away without even thanking her for her help.

Rose stared at him as he clutched the book in his hands and went to pay for it. He looked _weird_. Not that Malfoy was not usually weird, but more often than not when he had a girlfriend he was the first one to let everybody know, Rose knew that pretty well because he had had many girlfriends amongst the Prefects. Except for her, luckily. Not that he was not good-looking or studious or intelligent, in fact he was all these things, but the two of them were just _incompatible_, she had noticed that much.

He didn't like her bossy attitude, and she didn't like his arrogance. And the few times they had been paired up for anything at all, they had almost killed each other in the process.

But apart from that, he was all right.

ooo

Ron crossed his arms as Harry signed and closed the file on the Welsh unicorn trade. He stared at his best-friend, brother-in-law and father of his missing niece with pity as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily.

Another dead end.

Another hope that had burned away like the light of a candle in the wind.

The band of unicorn hunters were using the only woman of their gang, an ugly hag in her forties who was still a virgin, to attract the animals before they killed them.

Ron would have had to talk to Teddy. He should verify his sources before he started to give false hopes to Harry and Ginny.

He walked towards Harry's desk and sat down in front of him. "Hey," he said softly.

Harry brought down his hands, his green eyes shining with tears as he put his glasses back on. "Hey," he replied, his voice calm.

"Teddy did a good job," murmured Ron, "arresting a whole gang of unicorn hunters."

Harry nodded. "Yes," he replied feebly, his eyes on the file. He was silent for a long moment and Ron looked at him as he took a deep breath and shook his head imperceptibly as if to send away an unwanted thought. Finally, when the silence started to become deafening, he whispered, "I really thought… for a moment there, I really thought…"

"I know," replied Ron softly.

"I'm tired, Ron," murmured Harry, "Ginny is right, I'm losing hope."

Ron swallowed and looked at him with concern. He could only imagine what he and Ginny went through every time something like that happened. "Harry…"

He shook his head. "If it weren't for Ginny, I might have stopped looking for her already," he whispered. "I… I feel like… The Prophet says that I'm obsessed…"

"She's your daughter, Harry," pointed out Ron, "and since when is the Prophet a reliable source of information?"

Harry nodded, his eyes shining again. "When she was born, she was so small," he murmured, his voice weary, "do you remember her, Ron?"

Ron nodded. He remembered her perfectly well, born only a few days after Hugo, a little bundle of screaming joy. She was a little fireball and Luna had come back all the way from Australia just to be her godmother. The little daughter that both Harry and Ginny had always wanted.

"I remember that I said," Harry continued, his voice becoming a bit choked, "I remember that I said that I was her daddy and that I was going to protect her…"

Ron had to close his eyes, because the sight of Harry crying made his heart break; even though the Head Auror shed his tears silently and in a very composed way. He just couldn't bear to look at him like that anymore.

It was only after a few, interminable minutes that Harry sniffled loudly and blew his nose. "I think I should go home," he murmured finally, his voice calm once again.

Ron opened his eyes again just in time to see him brushing away tears from his face.

"Yeah," he replied, "just go. Don't worry here, I'll take care of the file."

"Thank you, Ron," he whispered, standing up and retrieving his coat. "I'm… I'm sorry, you know…"

"Don't be," he replied softly.

Harry looked at him and nodded. He walked slowly towards the door and stopped short of it. "I'll be in for the morning shift tomorrow," he said softly.

"I know," replied Ron.

Harry nodded again and walked out.

Ron listened until his steps died out in the corridor, before picking up the file and bringing it to the archive.

ooo

Scorpius couldn't breathe.

His hands were shaking and he was probably looking like a complete idiot at that very moment.

His grandparents had believed his lies. They even sent him their best wishes for a prosperous venture in the business world.

And a Gringotts cheque.

_Five hundred Galleons_.

He was glad he hadn't opened the letter that morning at the Slytherin table. If Ursula or Alice or some other girl saw him with a cheque for all that money, they would have never left him alone.

He was far better off on his bed, with the thick curtains drawn around him while all his fellow seventh year Slytherins were still at dinner.

_He couldn't eat_.

Not now when he had the money to see her again.

One more time. One more hour.

Now all he needed was to understand how to do that.

He was back at Hogwarts after all. He was not allowed to go on late night trips into London. Especially not to a whorehouse. Not that he would have said that to Professor McGonagall, but she surely wouldn't let him go out for a night even if he told her that he was going to have tea at the Potters'.

Which was ridiculous, really, because he was of age. He should have been able to go to Hogsmeade and Disapparate without so much as a "Goodnight" to the Headmistress.

_But he couldn't_. Or could he?

Maybe he could lie to get out of there. Tell them that he was going home and instead he was going to Nott & Goyle, just for a night. Maybe his father was sick. Or his mother. And he needed to attend her. Would they believe him? Or maybe he could disguise himself and go to Hogsmeade. He would be mistaken for a traveller, surely not a student. Or maybe…

Merlin! Why did everything have to be that difficult? Why couldn't he have Potter's Invisibility Cloak to sneak out without being disturbed?

Scorpius sighed.

He would have found a way to get to her. He didn't know how to do that yet, but all he knew was that he was going to do anything in his power to see her again.

_He needed to see her again._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** You are going to kill me because there was no Scarlet in this chapter... right? I just wanted to give her a day off - I can only take that much angst, and Ginny and Harry were quite enough. But don't worry! She is the absolute protagonist in the next chapter! Stay tuned!


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes:** When I updated last time there was some kind of problem with the website, were you affected? I always manage to get the best days to update my stories! Damn you FFNet! Oh, I'm glad you still liked last chapter, even though there was no Scarlet. To make up for that, though, two scenes with her right here! :) By the way, I have two questions for you. 1. How am I doing with the house-elf speak? I mean, I can never get it right, is it kind of right in this story? I just... I don't even know.. 2. Has any of you bought the Fanfiction App for iPhone? It was only 0,89 (euro for me), but honestly! Don't buy it! It's useless. You can't even upload your stories. You can see them and read them and review, but you can't upload a new chapter. And that was the only reason why I downloaded it. Pfft! I want my money back! Now, off you go! Enjoy this chapter, I like it, but I always like it when there's Scorpius and Scarlet together in the same scene... :D

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

"Miss Scarlet has to stop crying!" squealed Taffy frantically, "Miss Scarlet is all cried out and doesn't eat. She is going to be sick and die!"

Scarlet didn't listen to her. She had been crying for days now. Ever since her father had thrown the book into the fire. And even though it had been more than a week since that horrible day, she still didn't seem able to stop her tears like she was ordered to do more and more harshly every day.

But how could she stop crying? The book had been Scorpius' present to her. The only present she had ever received.

But when she had told that to her father, he had laughed at her and told her that the ankle bracelet that he had gifted her was ten times more valuable than that stupid book.

Scarlet didn't know the value of things. She had never seen those Galleons that Father and Uncle Gregory kept talking about, but she knew that she wanted the book far more than she wanted any jewel her father could ever give her.

Scarlet wrapped her arms around her naked legs and leaned her head on her knees. Her body shook with a new wave of sobs and she could feel some warm tears tracing down her legs.

The steam coming from the bathtubs where the other girls were taking their baths and her salty tears fogged her vision, and she just pushed her nose into the bend of her elbow and cried a bit louder.

"Oh Merlin," said Lulu waspishly from one of the tubs, "shut up, Scarlet, will you?" She placed a wet sponge on her forehead and sighed. "So Daddy burned your present. Get over it, you stupid girl. You probably didn't deserve a present anyway."

The other girls sneered, but Scarlet just started to sob again, this time trying to choke her whimpers and sniffles against her arm.

She could feel Taffy shudder behind her as a small indignant, huff left her brownish lips, but the elf didn't retort anything. She just tried to untie her knots a bit more quickly, to hopefully get her out of there sooner.

"You are lucky Daddy didn't decide to burn all your books," said Freya lightly, "maybe we should suggest it to Mister Nott… _We_ could entertain you during the day, Scarlet."

The girls sniggered their assent and Scarlet felt her heart being seized with fear at the very thought. _All day with them_… she didn't even want to think what kind of tortures they would invent for her.

"Ugly whores will not stuck their ugly noses where they don't belong!" snapped Taffy suddenly, brandishing a brush in her hand.

The girls looked at her half outraged and half surprised.

"You little impertinent monster," snarled a plump girl.

"I'm going to drown you in the bathtub," snapped someone else from a bench.

Scarlet squirmed on the stool and turned to wrap her pale arms around Taffy's little body, pulling her against herself as some of the girls stood up from stools and tubs and looked at them with hatred.

"No…" whimpered Scarlet feebly, closing her eyes.

Taffy patted her back lightly and when Scarlet opened her eyes again they were sitting in her bedroom.

"Miss Scarlet doesn't worry for Taffy," said the house-elf, covering her quivering body with a nightgown as she helped her up. "Taffy knows the girls are stupid." She made her sit on a chair and started to dry her hair with a towel first and then with magic. "But Miss Scarlet needs to stop crying," she said sternly. "Or Master will punish her again."

She looked at the reflection of the elf in the mirror as she brushed her hair until it shone. Sometimes she braided it with some little flowers that she got Merlin knew where, but not when she had to work. The clients liked to grab her locks and make her arch her back as they pushed into her, and thus her father didn't want her to pull it up when it was already evening.

Then the nightgown was tied properly around her body by the nimble, brown fingers of the elf and Taffy pushed a bowl of soup in front of her.

"I'm not hungry," she said weakly.

"But Taffy made Miss Scarlet's favourite," squealed the elf. She grabbed the bowl in her hands and dunk in a spoon, gathering up some soup and making it fall down back. "With little pieces of bacon and potatoes."

Scarlet looked at it and then lowered her eyes. "I don't want to eat," she whispered.

"But Miss Scarlet needs to eat," said the elf coaxingly, "Miss Scarlet is going to die if she doesn't eat."

"I don't care," she replied miserably.

The house-elf squealed. "But Taffy cares," she said, "and Miss Scarlet doesn't want to make Taffy sad…"

Scarlet looked at the elf. No, she didn't want to make her sad. Taffy was her only friend. What would Taffy do if Scarlet let herself die? She wouldn't have anybody to look after… She stretched her hands towards the bowl and put it in her lap, bringing a tentative spoonful of soup into her mouth under Taffy's beaming eyes.

The soup was good, but to Scarlet it almost didn't have flavour. She swallowed and smiled wetly at the elf, who patted her arm back happily.

But Scarlet just wanted to curl herself up in a ball and die. Her father had burned Scorpius' present and Scorpius never promised her he would come back. He said he'd tried, but days had slipped into weeks and she had never seen him again.

She was sure she had been forgotten.

But after all, Scorpius was surely a knight, but Scarlet was certainly not like Viridina.

She was just a whore.

ooo

The card that Scorpius got in the post that morning said 31st of January at ten in the evening. One hour. Just like the time before.

All he had to do now, was seriously starting to think about an excuse to get out of school.

_Or not really_.

After all, he could really have just slipped out of the main gate before Filch closed it in the evening, and go to Hogsmeade and wait at the Three Broomsticks. Would Madam Rosmerta tell on him? No, he had already thought about it for days! He had to wear a cloak and not show his face. He could have been anybody. And then, he would wait until nine thirty to Apparate to London, and at ten…

His heart beat a bit faster as he thought about her. _About Scarlet_. He had written her name in his Potions book the day before. He hadn't even noticed at first and when Mary Davidson had asked him who she was with a sneer on her face, he had luckily been quick to reply that that was the colour the potion had to turn in the end. And didn't she hear? Slughorn had said that just a minute before…

Mary was in tears when her potion turned green – the colour it really should have been – and Professor Slughorn didn't have a clue what was wrong with her and started to panic when she couldn't stop crying. All in all, it had been a fun lesson.

Scorpius was just grateful that Nott hadn't called her 'Scarlett'. That would have been much harder to come up with an excuse.

He wished he didn't have to come up with any excuse at all, though. He wished he could just let everybody know who she was. Let everybody know that the most beautiful creature ever to walk on earth looked at him as if he were a god. As if he were her own private deity. That she cried when he told her that he wouldn't be able to see her, that she kissed his legs in adoration when she saw him.

It was wrong, he knew that, and he was glad he felt the nausea raising in his stomach when he thought at the way she looked at him. Now at least. At first he felt smug and thrilled to be adored like that, but now all he wanted was for her to be happy, to go outside and walk with him and give him one of her beautiful smiles like she did every night in his dreams.

Because he dreamed of her every night. She was always there. She usually talked to him and told him tales that she had read. And once she had even kissed him, and her lips were the softest and most delicious thing he had ever touched. And when he woke up he felt all flustered and dismayed that it had been just a dream.

He couldn't wait to see her. He clutched the card in his hand. He couldn't wait.

ooo

Albus pocketed Lily's picture and glanced at his watch again. It was almost nine and Scorpius Malfoy was nowhere to be found. Somehow, the Gryffindor had a feeling that Rose wouldn't have been happy with either of them if they skipped a patrol, even when the fault was blatantly Scorpius Malfoy's.

To be honest, he had been quite an all right patrol partner up to that point. Silent, but punctual, always brooding and not really up for talking, not even for their usual bantering that had gone on for the past seven years. But it was not as if Albus didn't welcome the change, at least they could wander for the castle while both of them minded their own businesses. And that was that.

The clock chimed nine.

Not that night, though. Apparently, it had been too good to be real. Albus was certain that Malfoy was not going to show up and the raven-haired boy would have kicked the Slytherin for that.

ooo

It had honestly been all a bit of a blur.

The gate, the Three Broomsticks, the dark alley in Hogsmeade, the thought that he was skipping patrol… and then London and the fake offices of Nott & Goyle ltd., the employees and the smiling witch who opened a passage into the wall just for him. Then the corridor, the curtain and Charles, almost smirking at him as he called a girl to lead him to room fifteen, again.

He was early, again, Charles had said, and Scorpius couldn't have cared less. The girl was talkative that night, she was dark skinned and muscular, and she kept saying something about what a whining spoilt child Scarlet was, and Scorpius had to tune out her voice before he hexed her for good.

He didn't even look at her as he walked inside and slammed the door shut. He hurried to take off his coat and sat on the bed, waiting expectantly for Scarlet to arrive, almost tasting the moment she would be there.

And that moment tasted so deliciously.

Scorpius could feel his insides flutter and disappear as he sat there. Merlin, but that was not normal! He knew that. That was not healthy. He should have not felt that way for her. He was not supposed to feel anything but lust towards her, and instead he just wanted to see her and be close to her and talk to her.

He tapped his foot on the floor impatiently as the time for her to arrive neared. He looked at the book he had in his lap. How would she have liked it! The sequel to the tale of Viridina, and Scarlet's second present. She deserved to be covered in presents and for a moment Scorpius wished he could give her all the gifts that she hadn't been given in her life. For each birthday and each Christmas that she hadn't celebrated properly. He sighed as he imagined Scarlet at the Manor. His own Christmases would have been much happier with her by his side!

And then there it was, a knocking. A soft, shy knocking on the door. It took him far too long to find his voice and reply a faint, "Come in," but when he did the door opened and closed so quickly, that he convinced himself that she must have recognised his voice through the wood. Surely she did, because she was kneeling next to him in less than a second, her hands grasping his legs as her little body shook with sobs and whimpers.

She buried her head in his trousers and soaked them with her warm tears leaving him petrified on the spot. He looked down at her, her pale fingers were grasping the material as she tried to push herself against him with all her forces.

"Scarlet," he breathed, "what's wrong?"

She sobbed louder and started to murmur a string of words, "I'm sorry Scorpius it's all my fault I'm sorry I should have never done that I'm sorry please forgive me…"

"What?" he asked dazed. What was she talking about? "What happened? Scarlet, look at me, please. What happened?"

She raised her eyes to look up at him and he saw how wasted she looked that night. As if she were paler, thinner, wearier than ever before. A month had passed since he had seen her the last time and she hadn't looked quite as worn out as she did now.

"What happened?" he repeated softly.

She leaned her cheek against his knee and looked up at him. "Father burned the book that you gave me," she sobbed, "he says I'm not allowed to receive presents from anybody but himself."

Scorpius' jaw set. He couldn't have cared less about that stupid book. He could buy himself thousands of copies of that book. But that very volume had been Scarlet's only present. _His_ present to her. She had been so happy when he had given it to her, and it had been so heartbreaking to hear that she had never received anything before that moment. Only that stupid ankle bracelet.

And now? He had bought her another book and he had felt so thrilled about the thought of giving it to her. Another story of Viridina, she would have been so much more excited than she had been for the tales of the Bard. And now, the very thought of telling her that he had another volume but that he surely couldn't have given it to her – unless he wanted Nott to probably unleash all his rage on her – made him mad.

"Did… did he punish you?" he asked in a whisper.

She nodded softly. "Yes," she replied, "because I couldn't stop crying." She brushed away the tears from her cheeks. "But no client sent me back, and he said that he was pleased," she added in a whisper, looking at him as if she hoped that he would be pleased with her as well.

Scorpius closed his eyes and balled his hands into fists. He wanted to hex Nott. He just wanted to hex his balls off. And if only Scarlet could do magic, she would surely hex him herself, wouldn't she?

Then suddenly he remembered something, the last time he was there, he had been about to ask her just that, if she could do magic, right before the bell interrupted them.

"Scarlet," he said, opening his eyes and looking down at her. Her eyes were still shiny, but she wasn't crying anymore. She was still pressing her tiny body against his legs though. "Can you do magic?"

She shook her head, miserably. "Father says that I can't," she replied softly.

"You can't because you don't have magic or because you are not allowed?" he asked quietly.

She lowered her eyes. "He just says that I can't."

"Have you ever done magic?" he asked again. "Accidentally, maybe?"

She looked at him apprehensively, before glancing briefly at the door at her back. When she spoke her voice was a whisper. "I think I did," she murmured, "once."

"How do you know?" he asked. "What happened?"

She lowered her eyes again. "Lulu was hurting me," she replied in a whisper, "she was using her nails, and Taffy says that she's not allowed to use her nails on me. And I just wanted her to stop and…" Her voice trailed away as she pressed herself a bit closer to him.

He knew that Lulu was a despicable, little slut, he remembered her words from the first night that he had been there. All lies about Scarlet. "And?" he asked softly.

"And suddenly all the towels flew towards her and she couldn't see anything and fell back into a tub… and the girls said that I wanted to drown her, but I didn't, I swear, I didn't even know what I did…"

"And then what happened?" asked Scorpius.

She closed her eyes as if she was remembering. "The girls told Father and Father kept me in the playroom for three days," she said softly, "and three nights."

_Hex_ was too tame a word for what he wanted to do to Nott. He swallowed, afraid to ask, but needing to know. "What's the playroom?" he whispered.

She looked up at him, and for some reason that Scorpius couldn't quite grasp she seemed almost ashamed. "It's where Father takes us when we misbehave," she told him, her voice quivering. "And he punishes us."

He nodded, not wanting to hear any details about those punishments. "I… Scarlet, I want to try something… stand up," he said, taking out his wand from his pocket.

She stood and looked at him with apprehension as he stood up as well, wand in hand. He turned it and offered the handle to her. "Take it," he said gently.

"B-but Father doesn't want me to—"

"Your father is not here," said Scorpius firmly, "take it."

She looked at him before lowering her eyes to the wand. When she finally stretched her hand and closed her fingers around it Scorpius could almost feel her digits shaking around the wooden stick. Nothing happened though, but that was not her wand, that was his, he didn't expect anything to happen.

"Good," he said, walking around her and coming to stand behind her. "Now, the first spell I was ever taught was the Levitation Charm." He stepped closer to her, until his nose was almost pushed into her hair. She smelled so good, like flowers, and she was warm and as he stretched his arm in front of her to grab her wrist he felt his heartbeat increase at how soft and smooth her skin was under his fingers. He had to focus though, because he wanted to see if she really had magic or if she were a Squib and maybe one of the girls had tried to frame her with the towel trick.

"Now," he said, trying to concentrate and ignore how close to her he was standing, "you have to move your wrist like this." He guided her hand in a tortuous gesture for a couple of times, and then he made her repeat the motion until he was satisfied. He felt very much like Professor Flitwick at that moment. "Perfect," he finally said, lowering her arm, but still keeping his fingers around her, "now say _Wingardium Leviosa_."

She swallowed and murmured the incantation so softly he barely heard her.

"Louder, Scarlet," he said gently.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_," she repeated a bit more loudly.

He made her repeat the spell until she could say a nice and long 'gar' as he had been taught, and by that time, his thumb was rubbing circles on her wrist and he wasn't even noticing.

"Okay," he said, swallowing, "now, point the wand to that pillow." He raised her arm again and made her point it to one of the pillows on the bed. He leaned his chin against her temple, and it was only then that he noticed that she was shaking. She was quivering like a leaf at the thought of disobeying her father.

He turned his face to kiss her head as his other hand went to her arm, rubbing it soothingly. "Shh," he whispered, "it's okay, Scarlet, it's okay. We are only doing a bit of magic."

She nodded faintly at him, and Scorpius was sure that she had moved her head a bit towards his. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat and wondered if she could hear how excited he was to be that close to her and to touch her.

"Now point, wave and say the spell," he whispered gently, his voice a bit throaty.

She nodded again and he let go of her wrist.

"Now," he told her.

She swallowed before she waved the wand and said, "_Wingardium Leviosa_." The pillow didn't move. It didn't even flutter a little. She lowered her head and her arm at the same time.

"What are you doing?" he asked, grabbing her arm again and pointing it back to the pillow. "No, no, no, that's normal. It took me hours before I could make a feather levitate. We'll just keep trying."

"I don't think I can do it," she whispered dejectedly. "I'm not like you or Father. I'm just a silly little girl…"

"No, Scarlet," he said forcefully, "I don't want to hear anything like that from you." He gave her another kiss on her silky hair, fighting the urge to hug her. "Viridina would not give up," he reminded her gently.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if she was trying to let his words give her courage. Then she finally pressed her lips together, nodded again a bit more resolutely, and opened her eyes again. Finally she waved her wrist, saying the incantation another time. Once again, nothing happened, but this time he didn't have to coax her into trying again, she repeated the movement and the charm a third time and then another.

To Scorpius' utter surprise, at her fourth attempt, the pillow levitated from the bed for a few seconds, it waved slightly in the air, and fell down again on the covers with a faint 'thud'.

Scarlet gasped in surprise. "I did it!" she exclaimed, excitedly. "I did it!"

She did it. _She did it at her fourth attempt_. Scorpius was speechless and when she turned to hug him, her nose pushing against his neck and her hair tickling his jaw, he was even more dumbfound.

"You did it," he murmured, dazed, unable to move his arms to hug her back. "You did it." Only Weasley had been that good to manage to levitate a feather in their first lesson, and only after many attempts. Of course, Weasley and himself had been eleven at that time, and Scarlet was fifteen, but still… for someone who had never done any magic on purpose nor held a wand in her hand, she had managed incredibly quickly.

_She was definitely a witch_. Definitely not a Squib. He gritted his teeth. She deserved to go to Hogwarts. Why wasn't she at Hogwarts?

Something was terribly wrong there.

Let alone the fact that she was underage and forced to work as a prostitute.

Let alone the fact that she was segregated in a brothel without being able to go out.

Let alone the fact that her own father slept with her.

She was a witch who hadn't received her Hogwarts Acceptance Letter. What had happened? Did the Ministry know that she existed at all? Did McGonagall know? Or maybe she had received her letter, but her father had thrown it away? But why didn't the Ministry investigate?

Scorpius' eyes widened in comprehension.

But surely the Ministry didn't know about her. If it did, the Aurors would have already closed that place and taken her away from Nott.

How stupid could he be? How thick? Honestly!

She was… she was… what was she? A _captive_? A _hostage_ to her father's madness? She was a _victim_, of that he was sure. He had to take her out there. He had to free her, to bring her to a place where Nott would never find her.

But how? _How_? He couldn't go and tell the Ministry. They would send him to Azkaban the moment he said the word 'whorehouse', and if Nott did as much as sense that Aurors were coming to take her away, he surely would have done something drastic.

But alone… no, Scorpius couldn't have done it alone. She was certainly under strict surveillance. There was no way that he could have ever taken her through the round room without Charles crying havoc and Nott having her punished and him reported to his own father.

He looked down at her and saw that she was staring up at him, her lips stretched in a small smile, her arms tight around his torso. Scorpius grabbed her arms gently and untangled her from him, he took his wand from her and pushed it back in his pocket. "Scarlet," he said, looking seriously into her eyes, "you can't tell your father about this, okay?"

She nodded, lips parted in surprise. "Yes," she replied quietly.

He nodded back. "Good," he said, "this is going to be our secret."

She nodded again, looking at him almost conspiratorially, like a child who was told to keep mummy's birthday party secret. He couldn't help smiling down at her and she smiled back right away. Her tears from before all forgotten.

"You…" he whispered, "you are so beautiful…"

She beamed at him. "Like Viridina?" she asked hopefully.

"Ten times more beautiful," he murmured, pulling some of her long and silky hair behind her ear.

She flushed gently and her ruby lips moved a bit. He couldn't help looking at them, they seemed so soft and delicious to kiss, just like in his dream. He just wanted to do it. He wanted to envelope her in his arms and never let her go. He tilted his head a little to bring it down to hers, and her eyelids fluttered as she stretched her neck to reach him.

Then the first bell rang.

And Scarlet moved her head back at once and let out a soft sob. "You only had one hour," she whined.

He closed his eyes for a second, hating that bell with all his heart. He looked down at her and grabbed her shoulders. "Listen to me," he said quickly, the other bell would ring soon, "I promise you, I'll come back, okay? I don't know when, but I'll come back, do you understand me, Scarlet?"

She nodded, her pretty lips parted in surprise. "Yes," she murmured, "you are my handsome knight, you'll come back for me…"

"Yes, I'll come back for you." Merlin! He wanted to kiss her, he was burning with desire to brush his lips against hers and feel that pleasant electricity going through every cell of his being. But, as if the bell had known his intentions, that infernal device started to ring again.

Scarlet threw her arms around his torso and hugged him tightly one last time, before bolting for the door.

She was gone before he could even say goodbye to her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Notes:** I reached a point the other day where I hated this story. It happens to me from time to time. Does it ever happen to you with your own stories? I was just there doing I don't even remember what - probably editing some chapters for the umpteenth time - and I just felt sorry for my readers who have to read this fan-fiction. Now it's passed. It might help the fact that I finished editing chapter 26 and chapter 28 (chapter 26 was a bitch, chapter 28 I had to change a whole scene because the way I wrote it the first time was just ridiculous.. now I'm quite pleased), and now I'm back on writing my other story "The Perfection of Imperfect Love" which you'll see in a not so distant future, hopefully! Anyway, I'm so glad you enjoyed the last chapter quite a bit! I liked it too! Okay, okay. I'll stop here! Stupid author's notes get out of control... too long...

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

"Is this the room?" asked Nott, following a dark-skinned woman through the door.

"Yes, Sir," she replied, crossing her slender arms on her chest. "Scarlet's ten o'clock, a blond, young and handsome bloke."

Nott walked into the middle of the room and surveyed the place attentively. "Handsome? Do you think he's handsome, Ebony?" he questioned slowly.

She giggled. "He was," she replied, "I wished he was my client."

Nott looked at the bed, the armchairs, the table, and finally the bathroom which was visible through the slightly ajar door. Some people, Goyle was right, didn't like to use a mattress. Some men liked to sit on the armchairs and have the girls ride them, or they wanted to pick them up at the waist and push them against the wall, or they liked to have a shower and take them from behind.

But they always left some tell-tale detail of their coupling – a dented pillow on a chair, some sticky bodily fluids on the wall, a wet floor in the bathroom.

Not in that room, though.

Nothing was out of place there. Not the armchairs, not the bed, not the bathroom. There was only a pillow that had been carelessly placed in the middle of the bed, as if it had been thrown there for Merlin knew what reason.

"You wish he was your client," murmured Nott thoughtfully, "but he is Scarlet's, he always asks for her…" He turned to look at Ebony and raised his chin. "Are you sure the elves haven't already cleaned in here?"

"Positive," she replied softly, "when you said that you wanted to see the room nobody touched anything, Sir."

He nodded. "What do you think, Ebony?" he asked, looking at the room once again.

"I think he didn't fuck her," she replied with a little chuckle.

Nott darkened. "Why would someone pay five hundred Galleons for an hour with her if he doesn't want to fuck her do you think?"

She laughed more loudly. "He is in love, _obviously_." She slid her arm around his waist and pressed herself against him. "In love with a whore, isn't that tragic and hilarious at the same time?"

Nott turned towards her and entangled his fingers in her thick, curly hair, tilting her head back. "Hilarious," he agreed in a murmur. "I want to be informed next time Scorpius Malfoy books an hour with Scarlet."

She nodded. "Yes, Sir," she said, wincing slightly as his hand tightened around her locks.

"Good," he replied, letting her go. "Go now."

Ebony left silently, her bare feet making almost no sound on the carpets of the room. Nott took a deep breath as he looked at the room one last time and snapped his fingers. Two house-elves appeared with a loud 'crack' in front of him.

"Clean this room," he ordered darkly, "even if there's nothing to do."

The house-elves squealed and started to work, and Nott turned on his heels and stalked away, his head swarming with dark thoughts of Draco's son and Potter's daughter.

ooo

Teddy rubbed his temples as he stared at the little dot which was pulsing insistently on the map that James had handed him.

"You went there?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

James nodded. "I thought I had to check," he said, "it was a Trace after all."

Teddy took a deep breath. "I know," he replied, "we've caught that Trace for years, but we never found anybody." He looked at the dot again. "It's strong tonight, though," he added thoughtfully.

"As if the child was doing magic," agreed James with a little nod.

Teddy shook his head. "But nobody with magic lives in that part of the city," he said, "we've checked extensively."

"This part of the city," pointed out James, "it's between the Ministry and Diagon Alley."

Teddy nodded. "I think that's the trick, James," he replied calmly, "too much magic. We get signals of things that don't exist."

James nodded softly in agreement, but his shoulders slumped forward a little bit, disappointed, almost ashamed, to have followed a trail to something that didn't exist.

"Go home," said Teddy in a fatherly fashion, "you have the day shift this week."

James nodded again and yawned. "You are right," he replied, "good night, Teddy."

"Night, James."

And as his Auror trainee walked out of his office, Teddy Lupin stared at the pulsing, little dot on the map, wondering, like he did every time, if it really was just a trick.

ooo

"Mister Malfoy!" said Professor McGonagall, her old, wrinkled face a mask of horror. "You spent the night unsupervised at the Three Broomsticks! Without a parent consent! While at school!"

Scorpius lowered his eyes and darkened. "Yes," he replied through gritted teeth. He glanced at Weasley, Potter and Emeric Zabini and narrowed his eyes. Surely Potter had told Weasley that he hadn't showed up for patrol and Weasley had gone straight to the Headmistress to tell on him. Zabini was there just because he had a crush on Weasley and would do anything she told him to do.

Professor McGonagall brought her hand to her chest. "What in Merlin's name were you thinking?" she asked, her voice high-pitched with horror.

"I wasn't."

She nodded. "That's… that's a good answer, Mister Malfoy," she said sternly. "Why on earth would you spend the night there? Don't you have a bed in the seventh year Slytherin dormitory?"

"Yes, Professor," he replied sullenly.

Professor McGonagall collapsed heavily on her chair. "I will write to your parents," she said sternly, "and you will serve detention for two months starting from tonight." She darkened and added, "And consider yourself lucky if I don't take away your Prefect privileges."

He gritted his teeth and nodded curtly. He would have preferred if she did, really, because he had promised Scarlet he would go back to her and he didn't need Potter to report him another time.

"From tonight, you are required to go to the Trophy Room and clean each and every single article in there without the aid of magic," she continued sternly.

Scorpius' head snapped up. "But that's what first years do!" he protested. He had hoped in something different, maybe the Forbidden Forest with the caretaker, where he could have disappeared through the woods and to Hogsmeade once more as soon as he found the money to get to Scarlet again.

"And that's exactly what you'll do," snapped Professor McGonagall, "since you seem to have forgotten rules that even first years should know!"

Scorpius tried very hard not to roll his eyes, but he didn't seem to manage fully well, because when he looked up at the Headmistress she was fuming.

"You may go," she hissed in the end. "All of you," she added towards the other three while Scorpius stood up. "And Mister Malfoy," she called after him as he was already starting to walk away, "at your next transgression of the school rules I will take away your Prefect privileges and summon your parents."

He gave her his back and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Headmistress," he muttered, before walking down the stairs, followed closely by the three other students.

"Malfoy," Weasley called him as soon as the Headmistress' office door closed at their backs. "Where the heck did you go?"

"None of your business, Head Girl," he growled, without turning.

"Did you go to see your girlfriend?" she asked, and he was surprised not to hear a sneer in her voice. She sounded almost worried. Well, of course she was _worried_, she was afraid that he would have been made to resign from his Prefect position. And that meant that she would have had to teach to someone new everything about the most efficient way to patrol the school or the exact phrase to recite when taking away points, thus losing a lot of precious time that she might have used for studying.

He turned to face her and saw that Potter and Zabini were looking intently at him. "I said it's none of your business, Weasley."

"You are a Prefect, and I'm the Head Girl," she replied haughtily, "of course it's my business when you break the rules."

Then, suddenly, her expression seemed to morph: from the stern-looking Head Girl she turned into a regular, almost giggling girl. "Did you give her the book?" she asked with a soft smile. "Did she like it?"

Scorpius looked away. "I didn't give it to her," he replied darkly, before turning again.

"Oh," he could hear Weasley say as he walked away, could it be that she sounded almost disappointed? Those girls were a true mystery to Scorpius.

_All of them, but Scarlet_. He wanted to believe that he knew her, even though he was fully aware that he didn't know anything at all about her.

"Malfoy," called Potter. Merlin, had his punishment no end?

"What?" he snapped, not even turning.

"Remember that we have patrol at nine tonight," he said.

And with that Scorpius heard the three of them walking away.

ooo

Nott looked at Scarlet from the armchair in their bedroom. On the bed, her naked, sleeping body was flushed and covered in his come.

He was sure that she had noticed that he was furious. She hadn't said anything, naturally, but she had looked at him fearfully after he had finished with her.

And he was glad she had noticed, because he was really enraged.

He hadn't been angry with her at the beginning of the night, really.

Au contraire, he was usually nice to that silly, little girl after a hard night of work, and even that night he had made her lie down on her back and pushed into her gently, kissing her tears away, whispering sweet words into her ear and suckling on her breasts until they were coated with his saliva.

Almost making love to her rather than having the crude, animalistic sex that he himself favoured.

But then… then he had woken up in the middle of the night with her face close to his, her eyelids fluttering and her pretty lips moaning a name.

Not his name.

The Malfoy boy's name.

_Scorpius'_.

It was just a whisper, really, and she wasn't even saying it with wanton or lust. But in the middle of the night it had resounded loud and clear like a cry. She was calling his name, she was dreaming about him.

And Nott had felt his blood boil in his vein.

He hadn't even woken her up. He had rolled her on her stomach and pushed into her arse without so much as a muttered spell to lube her tight hole. She had woken with a startled cry of pain, her body convulsing as she fisted the covers and sobbed that Father was hurting her and to please stop.

He didn't listen to her. But after he came in her arse the first time, he made her raise on her hands and knees and took her again and she cried so loud Nott thought that he could almost hear the girls laughing outside their door.

He had licked away her tears and rolled her long hair around his fist, tugging her head back to kiss her as he pounded into her. Her soft, creamy arse was a delight against his lower abdomen and his free hand had sneaked under her body to fondle her breasts and pinch her nipples until she cried again and collapsed on the bed in exhaustion.

When he had exited her and ordered her to stop crying she had pushed her head into the pillow and fallen asleep in a matter of minutes, _shattered_. Now he was probably going to wake her up soon, because her round arse with her tight hole that still oozed his seed, and her white back splayed with those beautiful red locks were quite an arousing sight, and he felt his member twitching once again between his legs.

And he was angry with her, he needed to hear her scream and cry a bit more to placate his fury.

According to the registries, she had only seen Scorpius Malfoy three times. There had been clients that had wanted only her ever since she was nine. Not yet a woman, not even a girl, only a child, really, and they had booked her until some of them had gone skint. But he had never had to worry. She had never come into his office clutching a present from these men in her hands, she had never cried if said present was thrown into the fire, nor she had said their names in her sleep.

Nott shook his head bitterly. And to think that he had just wanted to do something nice for Draco. His old friend. Two hours with his precious Scarlet at the price of one for Malfoy's son. He would have rather preferred that Draco himself had come to use her… but Draco was soft, and he had a conscience, and surely he would have recognised Ginny Weasley's features on the girl. And then…

His old friend would have either blackmailed him or told on him straight away. In both cases Nott would have ended up killing him, which was quite a hassle really. Especially because his trusted killer was Goyle, and Nott somehow knew that he would have surely had thousands of protestations in case he ordered him to kill Malfoy.

But Draco's son was no better than his father. He was as soft as Draco himself: falling in love like that, with a prostitute! Now that Nott thought about it, probably Scorpius was even softer than his own father. He wondered what would have happened if he had given him a night with Lulu or Freya or Ebony or any other girl in his brothel. Would he have fallen for them too?

Probably not. Scarlet was a diamond amongst rocks, she was as bright as the sun and as beautiful as a flower. And she had those eyes… those innocent and trusty eyes as if she could see good in anybody, even in the girls when they tried to drown her or in her father when he punished her.

He smirked as he wondered what Potter would think if he saw her now. His little, pure, innocent daughter… _a first class prostitute_.

And Scarlet was so submissive and docile that Nott believed that he should have asked Potter for money for how well he had brought her up. Nott had done all the work, really, because she was a spoilt little brat when he had kidnapped her. But the Memory Charm, long nights of hard work and some deserved punishments had put her in her place. And now she was a profusion of "Yes, Father," and "I'm sorry, Father," and always ready to please him in every way he wanted.

The only thing he couldn't quite get rid of were her tears. She was prone to shed them every time her emotions overwhelmed her senses. Fear. Delusion. Pain. But after all, Nott didn't mind them too much. Sometimes, he found them quite alluring.

Nott looked at her as Scarlet stirred gently on the bed and murmured, "Scorpius," in her sleep one more time.

He darkened as he brought his hand to his member.

His pupils dilated the moment he started to stroke himself to hardness.

His lips twitched upwards at the thought of punishing her again and again until she screamed and cried for mercy.

ooo

"Are you tutoring Hugo?" asked Albus, plummeting on the couch behind his cousins.

"Yes," replied Rose evenly, "but only in Charms, he doesn't need help with anything else." She unrolled a bit more of parchment and kept checking her brother's essay while he tried to move his wrist in all sort of movements that he would probably need for his O.W.L. exam in June.

"How on earth do you find the time to do that?" groaned Albus. "You have Head Girl duties, your N.E.W.T.'s to study for, your ten thousand clubs where you're either chairman or bursar or whatever you—"

"Oh please," she said brightly, "I only have the book club, S.P.E.W., the Charm club, the Muggle-studies club, the D.A.D.A. club, the—"

"Merlin," Albus cut her off, exhausted at the simple mention of that infinite list, "I only have Quidditch trainings and with my N.E.W.T.'s this year I feel like I can't cope already."

She shrugged a shoulder dismissively. "Zabini is in each and every single club in which I am as well, and he has Head Boy duties and his N.E.W.T.'s too, so honestly, it's not like I'm doing something extraordinary."

"Rose," said Albus softly, looking at her with an exasperated look, "Zabini is in each and every single club you are in because he has a bloody huge crush on you. If you were at least a bit merciful, you would tell him you're not interest."

Rose's cheeks flushed crimson to match her hair as she rolled up Hugo's essay and gave it back to her brother. "Oh please," she replied, pulling some curls nervously behind her ear, "the fact that he always agrees with everything I say doesn't mean that he has a crush on me."

"He follows you around like a puppy," pointed out Hugo with a grin.

"He gave you the diary," said Albus, nodding towards a small leather book that lay on the couch near her hand.

Rose rolled her eyes. "We just work together most of the time because we have duties in this school," she reminded them, "it doesn't mean he fancies me." She snorted quietly and added in a murmur, "And he certainly doesn't follow me around like a puppy…"

Albus looked at her a bit taken aback. "Really?" he asked. "I mean _really_ you don't notice that he is madly in love with you?"

She snorted again and stretched her arms over her head. "It's in times like this one that I wish that Victoire or Dominique or Roxanne or Lucy or Molly were here," she said calmly, "they would tell you to just—"

"Or Lily," Albus cut her off quietly, looking at her.

Rose's voice died in her throat. She nodded and lowered her eyes. "Or Lily," she murmured in agreement, forgetting what she was about to say to them.

"I'm off to bed," said Hugo, standing up, his voice seemed a bit choked after the mention of his cousin.

Albus yawned. "I wish I was too, but I have to retrieve Malfoy from the Trophy Room in half an hour for patrol."

Rose beamed at him. "Good boy," she said patronisingly. "And I need to meet Zabini in the Great Hall for a—_oh_, stop sniggering you two!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Notes:** Three things that I need to write in this author's note today:

1. Happy Easter! Or Happy belated Passover! Or happy whatever-doesn't-offend-you! I hope you have some wonderful holidays and if you don't celebrate anything well, then, have a very Happy Unbirthday!

2. I want to let all the people who are reading this story know that I am blessed with wonderful readers/reviewers. I haven't gotten any single-word review just yet (which are good anyway, don't worry!), all of them are long and lovely and full of things that you think will happen, or analysis of the chapters or filled with wonderful things that you write about my writing (you are so gracious with me!). I cannot thank you enough. Honestly! Thank you so much. You rock, guys!

3. I'm sorry I didn't post a warning in the last chapter about the Nott/Scarlet scene towards the end. I promise that there won't be too many of those scenes in the upcoming chapters, and that I'll always give you warnings in my author's notes in the future. I'm sorry if that scene might have made you uncomfortable. My desire to surprise my readers got a bit out of control! Please, enjoy this chapter. There's one scene that always makes me cry, and one that makes me smile sadly at the end...

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Scorpius' arms were in pain.

Honestly, he could endure hours of Quidditch training without so much as a slight tiredness in his muscles at the end of the day; but his noble limbs were not used to rub silver polish onto frames and trophies over and over again until they shone.

_Stupid, old-fashioned detentions..._

As a result, for the first time in his life, Scorpius Malfoy couldn't wait to see Albus Potter.

Seeing Potter would mean that the time of patrol had at long last arrived, and the Gryffindor boy would finally save him from the ungrateful task of cleaning the whole content of the Trophy Room with what Filch had given him: a rug, a sponge and some silver polish.

And those damn trophies and frames and plaques were as dirty as if they hadn't been polished in years, maybe decades. Which was surely not the case because Scorpius knew that first years regularly carried out their detentions in that room.

He suspected that Professor McGonagall tarnished them with some charm or something, just for fun, right after one finished to clean them. So that the room was always ready in case someone was given a last minute detention.

_Like himself_.

Scorpius sighed. Oh well, that was his punishment and there wasn't a way out of it, really. And after all, apart from the pain, the smell of the silver polish, and the general boredom of cleaning objects the Muggle way, it wasn't as terrible a task as he had expected it to be: he didn't have to talk to anybody, he didn't have to think about what he was doing, he didn't have to do much but take out a trophy after the other and clean them mechanically, leaving his mind free to wander.

And that was exactly what his mind was doing.

And, unsurprisingly, his mind soon filled with thoughts about Scarlet.

The more he thought about her, the more he understood that he felt something for the girl. He had tried very hard not to feel something her, tried very, very hard, but he hadn't succeeded one bit. He had feelings for her and that was all.

His father would have killed him if he knew, and somehow Scorpius didn't care.

Draco Malfoy had told him loud and clear that it was a deplorable thing to fall in love with a prostitute. And Scorpius agreed with him. There was no doubt there. But Scarlet didn't look like a prostitute. She looked like a child, really. A child in need of love and affection, and even though Scorpius had never been a very affectionate young man, he couldn't help thinking that he wanted to be the very person to give her all the love she needed to be happy for the rest of her life.

His parents would have never accept such a union, though. They would have kicked him out of the Manor. They would have disinherited him. They would have disowned him.

Naturally, thinking about it as an indefinite thing, something that might or might not have happened in an undefined future, was easy. He could tell himself that he didn't care about his inheritance, that he would have freed Scarlet, left Hogwarts, found a job somewhere and attended to each and every single need the girl might have.

He furrowed his brow as he stopped rubbing the polish into the silver. That was such a stupid concept though, that he had no idea how he could even think those things. He was as good as a Pygmy Puff with anything manual, he was used to rely on his parents for everything, he didn't have the patience to take orders by anybody at all, he didn't even know where he would have lived with Scarlet…

He shook his head forcefully and darkened as he started to rub the polish a bit more forcefully now.

Professor McGonagall had written to his parents to let them know that he had been away from school for one night, and his father's reply had been cold like the dungeons of the Manor in a January night.

His father hoped Scorpius had _not_ gone to see the whore again. His grandparents were particularly disappointed in him for his reckless behaviour. His mother was seething. He told Scorpius that that was the last time he would allow him to do such a thing. They would talk during the Easter holidays and he hoped Scorpius didn't expect him not to punish his son just because he was of age.

Scorpius had crumbled up the letter and thrown it away. _He didn't care._ He didn't want to care. He had promised Scarlet he would go back and he was going to do just that.

How, when and with what money, he didn't know, but all he knew was that he had to go back to see her.

No. Not go back just for an hour before the damn bell rang again and she had to go to meet some other client. No. He really wanted to take her away.

Away from Nott. _He had to_.

He took a deep, angry breath, as he put away the heavy, silver dish he was cleaning, and took out a small trophy. Someone called Betsy Magpie back in 1954 had been Head Girl and had done something that deserved a dusty old trophy in a glass cupboard of the freaking Trophy Room. _Good for her_. Now if she could come and pick up her trophy to take it home, Scorpius would have been utterly glad. It might have had some sentimental value as well, didn't she want it in her living room?

He sighed as he started to rub the silver polish into the trophy.

_Stupid McGonagall_…

He shook his head to think about something else, and somehow he was back to think about Scarlet before he could even notice. He wondered what she was doing at that very moment, but then he remembered that it was evening and a surge of nausea rose in his stomach. The very thought of her perfect, beautiful body being pushed into the mattress by someone who had to pay for sex made him sick.

How could those people not see that she was special? That she looked like she had royal blood flowing in her veins? And did they know that she was only fifteen? He wondered if that turned her clients on even more. That she was underage.

He grabbed the trophy with more force than it was probably necessary and slammed it back into the cupboard. He took out the frame next to it and snorted. 1997. There was no order whatsoever in that place. And if the trophy had been about a Head Girl who did some undefined good deed for the school, this was a picture of a Quidditch Team winning the House Cup.

He glared at it. Gryffindor, _naturally_. At least if it had been the Slytherin team he wouldn't have minded that much. But it was Gryffindor, with all the people wearing red and gold and…

_Merlin_! That must have been Potter's father because he looked exactly like him. And that one… red hair, tall, lanky, he looked quite a bit like Weasley. Hugo Weasley, not his sister. And that one there…

Scorpius brought the frame closer to his nose.

_That one there was Scarlet. _

He sucked in his breath, his fingers tightening around the frame.

_But that was not possible_.

He scrunched up his eyes and bit his bottom lip. _It's_ _not possible, it can't be possible._ He opened his eyes again to stare at the picture once more.

No. Scarlet was not quite as bubbly as the girl who was jumping up and down next to Potter's father, sporting a grin that went from ear to ear. Scarlet was delicate and soft and calm… _But would she be if she hadn't been confined in that place all her life with a father like Nott?_ Maybe she would be just like the girl there… the girl who looked so much like her, yet who seemed so much happier… so much more—

"Slacking off, are we?"

Scorpius had to grab the frame at the last minute before it fell to the floor. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "What the hell is your problem, Potter?" he hissed.

Potter's head appeared from under his Invisibility Cloak. "_You_ are my problem, Malfoy," he said nonchalantly, "I even have to come and pick you up." He peered over his shoulder and at the picture in Scorpius' hands and smirked. "Looking at my family's picture?"

He looked down again and furrowed his brow. "What?" he asked confused.

"Well, almost," he said, probably shrugging an invisible shoulder under the cloak and pointing to the people in the picture. "My uncle, my father, my mother, Aunt Katie even though she isn't really—"

"Your mother?" asked Scorpius, looking intently at the girl sporting a grin. Of course! Now he remembered. He had seen her in Diagon Alley that December morning. Yes, during the Christmas holidays when he was there to collect the money to go and see Scarlet. That day, at first, he had thought he had seen Scarlet, but then noticed that he had been looking at a grown-up woman, not a girl.

Scorpius' swallowed. But this picture… it could have fooled anybody. Potter's mother looked incredibly like a prostitute, did the Gryffindor boy know? He almost laughed at that. _Of course he didn't_.

"Yeah," replied Potter, snorting, "there's a picture after this one where she kisses my father, you don't want to see it."

Scorpius glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "No, I most certainly don't," he replied dryly, putting the frame back into the cupboard and closing it.

"Are you ready for patrol?"

Scorpius looked at him and nodded. "Yeah," he replied, and as Potter took off his cloak, Scorpius followed him out of the Trophy Room.

ooo

Grimmauld Place was silent. So silent it was almost eerie.

Kreacher was sleeping in some cupboard, Harry and James were at work, and Albus was at school.

Ginny was standing in Lily's empty bedroom.

And Lily was nowhere to be found.

Ginny pulled the covers over the pillow and tucked them under the mattress. The freshly laundered linen smelled of lavender, and she couldn't help thinking how much Lily liked that smell as she unfolded, shook and then folded once more a pink blanket over the foot of the bed. She took the stuffed animals that her daughter owned and put them back over the covers.

_The unicorn next to the Pegasus_, she had heard Lily say once, _because they are both special horses_ _and they will have lots to talk about and won't get bored_.

She heard, rather than see, the loud toc of the first tear falling on Lily's pillow, and she hurried to rub her eyes dry before putting the soft toy that looked like Padfoot next to a bunny and finally the teddy bear.

She surveyed her work and nodded.

Everything was ready. Everything had been ready for the past six years, five months and two weeks. If Lily came home that evening, she would have found her room all set for her, she could have slept there straightaway, and Ginny would have slept with her and cradled her in her arms and told her how much she had missed her for the whole night. Even after her daughter had fallen asleep.

And then she would have said, "I told you so," to all the people who thought that they would have never found again. Because nobody believed her when she said that her daughter was still alive. That she could feel that she was not dead. Deep inside her heart.

She sighed and sat on the bed, leaning her head against one of the bedposts of the four poster bed. If she closed her eyes she could still see her playing on the floor with her toys, or listening to Rose as she read her a book out loud, or Lily herself reading to her teddy bear.

She remembered her as if she had seen her the day before. Her bright eyes, her smile, her little, naked feet on the cold floor of Grimmauld Place.

Ginny closed her eyes and didn't even try to fight the tears. She would have given all the gold they had at Gringotts, she would have given Grimmauld Place and everything she owned to have Lily back.

_Everything_.

ooo

"I thought you polished that frame yesterday, Malfoy."

Malfoy turned to look at Albus, eyes dark. "Yes, yes," he replied hastily. "I was just putting it back right."

Albus looked warily at him and nodded.

That night Scorpius Malfoy hurried in front of him to go to patrol and he didn't say a word.

ooo

Scarlet was lying on her stomach on her bed when Taffy climbed up next to her.

She scrunched her eyes closed and clutched the pillow in her arms as the little creature spread the ointment between her legs and proceeded to push a finger inside of her tight hole to coax her abused walls.

"Why is Master so angry with Miss Scarlet?" squealed the elf agitatedly. "What does Miss Scarlet do to make Master so angry?"

Scarlet sniffled loudly and tensed up as the smelly ointment came into contact with the lacerated tissue inside her anus. Taffy massaged the small of her back to soothe her and Scarlet tried to relax under the ministrations of the elf, but it hurt, and all she wanted was to change position, curl up in a ball and cry with her head pushed in the pillow.

"I don't know," she choked out. "I don't know…"

When the elf's finger exited her and Taffy jumped off the bed and walked towards the bathroom, Scarlet let out the breath that she didn't know she was holding, and let all her muscles relax against the soft covers of the bed. The ointment was quick to take effect and soon she could feel her lacerations heal and her soreness disappear. She was glad that whatever she had done to make her father so angry, it wasn't that terrible that he would forbid Taffy to take care of her.

"Is Miss Scarlet feeling better?" asked Taffy as she returned from the bathroom, her clean hands patting her back.

"Hmm," replied Scarlet, closing her eyes. "Better… thank you…"

The elf started to walk around the room, cleaning and folding her dresses and her father's clothes, and Scarlet listened to her as she worked, and every now and then mumbled something in her high pitched voice. Scarlet liked her voice, even though it was not particularly pleasant, she had always associated Taffy's voice to the only happy moments in her life, and hearing her talking made her feel safe and happy.

But thinking about Scorpius, and imagining herself talking to him when he came to see her, made her feel all giddy and loved like she had never felt before in all her life.

He was her knight.

Her friend.

_Surely, he was the love of her life..._

"Taffy," she said softly, "I think I'm in love… no, I'm sure I'm in love…"

Taffy squealed. "Miss Scarlet must stop saying those things! Taffy is sure that Master is angry at Miss Scarlet because of those things!"

Scarlet slid her arms up a bit, and hugged the pillow to her chest. "Father doesn't know," she murmured thoughtfully. "I wish I could ask him if Scorpius could come and stay with me all day…" She sighed. "And we could talk and talk and talk and I would read to him and he would listen to me…" She opened her eyes and waited for Taffy to come closer to her to whisper, "He made me do magic, Taffy."

Taffy's huge eyes became even wider as she stretched a hand and covered Scarlet's mouth. "Miss Scarlet mustn't say these things aloud," she whispered, "Master doesn't want Miss Scarlet to do magic!"

She nodded and Taffy took her hand away. "I know," said Scarlet softly, closing her eyes for a moment. "He promised me he would come back. I don't know when, but he said he would… for me…" She yawned and felt Taffy place a blanket on top of her.

"Miss Scarlet sleeps now," said the elf softly, "Taffy will wake her up for lunch…"

"Hmm," she replied sleepily, "thank you, Taffy…"

The house-elf kept talking to herself as she worked around the room, and Scarlet fell into a peaceful sleep filled with dreams of Scorpius and Taffy and soup with bacon and potatoes and Viridina the witch…


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Notes:** Important chapter ahead! The chapter you've all been looking forward to! So, let me know what you think. I wanted to edit this over and over, but my cousin came over this afternoon and I had to help her with her homework. So, yep, this chapter had only been edited five times. Any mistake is purely my fault. Apart from that, happy reading! :D

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

For the fifth evening in a row, Scorpius took out the Gryffindor Quidditch team picture from 1997 and stared at it. Albus Potter's parents were doing the same exact things that they had been doing the first four evenings. They were smiling and raising their brooms up in the air, and jumping up and down and looking just plain happy.

For the fifth evening in a row, Scorpius couldn't help noticing how similar Ginny Potter looked to Scarlet. His heart almost beat at a faster rate when he looked at her, as if the two young women were the same person. In that picture Ginny Potter should have been about the same age as Scarlet was now, and honestly the only difference was in their clothes and in the expressions on their faces.

He had always seen Scarlet cry, or smile, or even beam at him, but he had never witnessed her being in such high spirits like Potter's mother was in that photo.

He wished he could see Scarlet look like that one day.

He brushed his thumb over the picture and took a deep breath.

Scarlet didn't look anything like Nott, did that mean that somewhere there was a witch who looked like Ginny Potter and who was her mother? Scorpius didn't know why he cared that much about that particular, but when she had told him that her father didn't want her to ask about her mother he had felt a surge of anger towards Nott, and a strange longing to discover Scarlet's inheritance, as if there was a secret hidden somewhere in the girl's story…

Scorpius' head jerked up as an idea popped into his mind. An absurd idea, really, that just couldn't have been…

But they did look so similar…

_Honestly_…

What if Ginny Potter _was_ Scarlet's mother? Maybe there was a shady intrigue in that story. Ginny Potter had had an extra-conjugal story with Theodore Nott, she had got pregnant and to hide the child from her husband, she had given her to Nott to raise. That could have been why he didn't want to tell her about her mother, because it was a secret. A well-kept secret…

Scorpius shook his head forcefully. But that was absolutely ridiculous. He was no expert in pregnancies and children, but somehow he imagined that Ginny Potter would have had to hide her pregnancy, not the baby herself, and how to hide a pregnancy? Probably there were charms to do disguise a woman's extended belly but honestly… Could one wear a charm for nine months? Would she have been able to hide her pregnancy from her own husband?

No. He was really stupid.

And Ginny Potter didn't seem the kind of woman to cheat on her husband. With Nott of all people.

No. That was absurd.

To add to that, he remembered seeing some pictures of Potter's mother in the Prophet when they wrote articles about her daughter. The daughter that someone had taken from her. She always looked so heartbroken and desperate that Scorpius couldn't help thinking that she would have never given up a child like that.

No. Surely she would have never given her daughter away like that. Because someone had stolen Ginny Potter's child and she had—

Scorpius' head snapped up again as he stared in front of him. "Bloody sodding hell," he muttered.

He gasped out loud as if he couldn't gulp down enough air and his heart started to beat at double speed. His head began to hurt as another idea entered his brain.

Ginny Potter… _Ginny Potter was Scarlet's mother_.

But Theodore Nott wasn't her father.

Scorpius' eyes lowered on the picture again as he stared at the raven-haired boy who looked a lot like Albus Potter.

_Harry Potter was Scarlet's father_.

Scarlet was… she was…

Scorpius scrunched his eyes up. He had read about it, about the kidnapping. Everybody had read about it, every student had talked about it at Hogwarts for weeks after it had happened. James and Albus Potter and a myriad of Weasleys had been removed from school for almost a fortnight after it had happened.

Scorpius was in his first year and Potter's sister was what? _She was what, dammit?_ Nine? Ten? _Nine, she must have been nine_. In his first year, that was six and a half years before and that made the girl… fifteen… _like Scarlet_.

Scorpius shook his head. But that was ridiculous. No… Aurors had looked for her everywhere, all around Europe even. And they had never found her.

And Scarlet… she talked like she had never been out of that place, she said she had never seen what's outside, she called Nott 'Father', she didn't ask about her parents, she said that Taffy had taken care of her since she was little, she…

He closed his eyes again. _No, she hadn't_. She had said that Taffy had taken care of her ever since she could remember.

_Remember_.

Maybe she didn't remember. She didn't remember her parents, she didn't remember her life before Nott.

Maybe Nott… Nott had done something to her... Maybe he had cast her under a spell... Maybe he had erased her memory, maybe...

Yes, maybe he had kidnapped her and erased her memory.

Scarlet…

_Scarlet was Potter's sister_.

"I think you spend your evenings looking at pictures rather than cleaning, Malfoy."

Scorpius gasped and let the frame fall to the floor. The glass shattered in a myriad of shards as the silver frame bounced on the stone floor with a loud thud.

Scorpius turned to look at Albus Potter, his eyes as wide as if he had seen a ghost. "Potter," he breathed.

Potter corked an eyebrow. "Yes," he said matter-of-factly, "did you expect someone else?" He looked down and sighed. "You either really like or really dislike that picture," he said, drawing out his wand to probably repair it.

"No!" exclaimed Scorpius, picking up the photo and shaking the shattered glass from it. "I… I'll do it…" He looked at Potter as the Gryffindor gaped back at him. "I… I'll do it… later…" He pocketed the picture, perhaps not as subtly as he had hoped because Potter exclaimed a loud, "Hey!"

Scorpius gave him his back and swallowed.

He needed proof, he needed to do some research. He needed to go and see Scarlet again and ask her about her past. See how far back she could remember. He needed money. He needed to… he needed…

"Malfoy, what's your problem?" asked Potter, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Nothing," muttered Scorpius hastily, turning to look at him. "Let's go."

"You just stole a picture and broke a frame that will surely be worth a lot of Galleons, shouldn't you at least mend it and put the picture back?" he asked, hands on his hips like Rose Weasley would do in that situation.

"What?" gasped Scorpius taken aback.

"I said that you should mend the frame and put the picture back."

"No," snapped Scorpius, "not that, before that… it's worth a lot of Galleons?"

Potter shrugged a shoulder. "Well, it's silver," he replied, "I'm sure everything in here is quite valuable…"

Scorpius looked around himself. He was right. Those things were _valuable_. And there were lots of things there. Surely not even a tenth of the stuff there was worth… _five hundred Galleons_.

Just what he needed.

He drew out his wand and mended the frame hastily. "There," he said to Potter, before putting it back in the cupboard and closing it.

Potter gaped at him as if he were stupid. "You have the picture in your pocket," he said as if he were talking to a really young and really stupid boy.

"Do I?" asked Scorpius, cracking a nervous smile as he drew it out. "Oh, you're right…" He looked at the picture again before he put it into the cupboard against the frame. "Let's go," he hurried to say, walking past him, "I have something to do after patrol."

ooo

Scorpius had letters to write after patrol.

The first letter that he wrote was addressed to the Daily Prophet.

He had to think for a couple of minutes about the name he wanted. He had read it so many times in the past, but somehow he had managed to forget it. So he had had to go and ask his fellow Slytherins, but they all seemed uninterested in the Potter kidnapping and didn't remember anything as well.

Luckily, the Head Boy was not. Emeric Zabini seemed to know everything about Potter's sister. Scorpius imagined that, because of his crush on Rose Weasley, he had listened to her talking incessantly about the events that had taken place six years before, or maybe he had researched about the girl to show all his sympathy towards the Head Girl.

_Lily Luna Potter_.

That was her name.

Scorpius' heart beat a bit faster when he thought that that could have been Scarlet's name.

_Her real name_.

She had disappeared in September of six and a half years before, the ninth of September more precisely. While she was in her grandparents' garden. Hugo Weasley was the only witness and he had seen a tall, big man Stunning his cousin and Disapparating with her in his arms.

Nott was tall and big.

But then Zabini didn't know anything else except that they had never found her.

And so Scorpius was requesting all the past issues of the Prophet that had an article on Lily Luna Potter.

And then, he needed all the issues that had an article on Theodore Nott as well, before the ninth of September. Because honestly, why would he have taken away Potter's daughter? Just for fun? Was he really _that_ cruel? And that didn't make sense, he could have gotten Hugo Weasley as well, if he wanted children just for fun, but he hadn't even looked at him.

No, he had wanted Lily. _Just Lily_.

And yes, Lily was beautiful, and she surely brought in his business quite a lot money at the price he sold her, and he forced her to sleep with him and all, but… was that all there was?

Did Nott just need a baby prostitute and got the first child he could find? And Lily was unfortunate enough to be there? But no, Potter's grandparents lived in Devon… That was quite along way from London, and he could have gotten every Muggle girl and the Ministry wouldn't have even bulged.

Scorpius shook his head. He needed to read the articles. He needed to understand. He wrote the letter quickly and sealed it in an envelope.

The second letter he wrote was for Nott & Goyle ltd.. Did _they accept valuables besides money?_ He had lots. Silver trophies and frames and plaques. He would shrink them, stuff them in a little pouch and send them as many as they wanted. His owl was strong and used to travel with heavy weights.

He wrote them that he wanted another hour with Scarlet.

He would have sent silver articles for five hundred Galleons.

The next morning he was in Owlery before dawn to send the letters.

ooo

Nott's mouth twitched upwards as he read the message that the young Malfoy had sent him.

_Did they accept valuables besides money_?

No, they didn't, but for the one and only heir to the Malfoy fortune they could do an exception. Especially when he stole from Hogwarts to be with a prostitute.

Nott would have to remember to visit the Manor right after the young man was expulsed from school. He couldn't wait to see Draco's face.

He tapped the tip of his wand on a silver button on his desk and waited.

_Ah, what one did for love! _Stealing. Visiting brothels. Conserving the non-existing purity of a girl by refusing to fuck her.

There was a quick knock on the door and Charles walked into Nott's office as soon as he told him to come in. "You called, Sir," he said, bowing slightly.

"Yes, Charles," he replied, handing the letter to him. "Answer to Mister Malfoy, please, tell him that we accept anything that he wants to send us."

"Yes, Sir."

"And once he had booked his appointment with Scarlet, let me know," continued Nott, "I want to talk to him after he finishes with her."

"Yes, Sir," repeated Charles.

Nott looked at his employee and cocked his head. "How far along are you, Charles?" he asked with a subtle smirk.

Charles swallowed and smiled nervously. "I've still two hundred Galleons to go, Sir."

Nott nodded thoughtfully. "Don't worry," he said, "she's worth the effort."

ooo

Scorpius had underestimated the importance of Lily Luna Potter.

He was unsure as how he could have possibly done that – in all fairness, she was the only daughter of the Head Auror, The Boy-Who-Lived and saviour of the Wizarding World – but Scorpius had. And now he was staring at an impressive pile of past issues of the Daily Prophet being delivered on the Slytherin table right in the middle of breakfast. And naturally all the other Slytherins were looking at him.

No, the whole Great Hall was staring at him.

Particularly Rose Weasley, and with a murderous glare to add to that. Really, as if she was certain that he was doing something that was completely and utterly wrong and that would have got _him_ – one of her precious Prefects – into trouble again.

He lowered his eyes on the pile of newspapers and gritted his teeth. He took out his wand and shrunk them as much as he could before levitating the pile towards the door of the Great Hall, ignoring the whispering coming from the people around him.

"Where are you going?"

Scorpius let out a frustrated groan. "The library," he replied, without even looking at the Head Girl.

"What is this?" she asked and he could almost sense her hands on her hips in her voice.

"Newspapers."

"Why do you have newspapers?"

He finally looked at her. "You are joking, right?" he hissed. "I mean… this is private."

She flared her nostrils. "You are not getting into trouble again, are you?"

"Of course I am," he replied, rolling his eyes, "I am always getting into trouble. Just because I really want you to have the worst year ever as a Head Girl." He turned on his heels as Weasley started to become all red with fury, and a satisfied smirk crept on Scorpius' face.

ooo

Scorpius didn't know what he should have expected from the articles. He knew the whole story now, that was sure, or at least the story that the Prophet had published.

But apart from the fact that she had been kidnapped when she was nine, on the ninth of September, that Hugo Weasley had seen a tall, big, masked man, and that she had been taken away and never returned to her family – all things that he had known from Zabini anyway – the Prophet didn't talk about her.

It talked about her family, about the various leads that had all resulted in dead ends, and about the celebrations of the anniversaries of her disappearance.

And then there were pictures of her. At first they were pictures that her family had given to the newspaper. That was the child that the Ministry was looking for, did anybody have news about her? And then they morphed the picture to make her look like she had aged. In those pictures, she looked vaguely like Scarlet, but Scarlet was even more beautiful and just plain… _different_. Somehow, especially in her eyes, she was nothing like those pictures. The eyes of the girl in the morphed photos were glittering with childish mischief, Scarlet's were dreamier and sadder.

He took a deep breath and closed all the newspapers, pushing them in a corner on the table he had occupied in a sheltered corner of the library.

_Nott_. He needed to focus on Nott now.

There wasn't much about him, but the Daily Prophet had been quite thorough and had sent issues from back in the days about him. His father was a Death Eater, his mother was dead when he was still a child. He had fought on the wrong side of the battle during the Second Wizarding War.

But Scorpius' father had too.

In the oldest pictures he looked tall and thin and quite weakly built, but his harsh features and his malicious eyes were easily recognisable.

Scorpius picked up some of the most recent issues. The summer before Lily's disappearance for example. They talked about Nott quite a few times and he had to go back to May to find the first article of the series.

Scorpius' heart skipped a beat. There had been something, something that Head Auror Potter had done that involved Theodore Nott. _A raid_. A raid to close down all Wizarding whorehouses across Great Britain.

According to the Prophet. Theodore Nott owned three, two in London and one in Liverpool. Many other people owned many others and they had closed a total of fifteen. Nott was barely mentioned really, only a name in a list. But the people involved had to pay quite some money to stay out of Azkaban. Most of them were broke by the end of the trials.

In the United Kingdom, Prostitutes were not illegal, brothels au contraire were; but nobody in the Wizarding World had felt the urge to abide by that law until the moment Harry Potter had enforced it with severity.

Luckily, the Daily Prophet had ignored his request to request issues only until Lily's disappearance, because after the ninth of September of six years before there were a couple of articles that talked about Nott & Goyle ltd., and about how a Wizarding enterprise had started working in the Muggle world and it was apparently prospering.

_According to the newspaper, Nott was a role model_.

After a shady past in the business of whorehouses, he had redeemed himself and constructed a financial empire. And to top that, he was a pure-blood wizard and son of a Death Eater who worked with Muggles.

Scorpius gritted his teeth. Most of that money was brought in by Scarlet alone. He doubted that the Muggle enterprise even existed.

He needed to go back to the brothel and see her again.

Right now he was _almost_ sure she was Potter's daughter, but he needed to be certain before he acted. And after his suspicions had been confirmed, he would need to decide what to do about her…

Scorpius shook his head.

Did her identity really matter? What if she wasn't Potter's daughter? What if Nott was her actual father?

She didn't deserve to be left there in his care a minute longer…

Yes, Scorpius already knew what to do about her.

He just needed to find a way to do it.

_He needed to rescue the girl from that place._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hope this isn't going too fast. I am quite satisfied with the way Scorpius managed to put the pieces together. Lots of you would have wanted him to get there sooner, but honestly, there's a plot to build here, isn't there? :D


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Notes:** I am so glad you enjoyed last chapter! I was honestly fretting because it was a Scarlet-less chapter and I love Scarlet, so I didn't think it was that good after all... Instead, it was my most successful yet, both here and on AO3! Well, it must have definitely been because of Scorpius' deductive reasoning. We are all glad he got there, right? This is the fourteen chapter - it's titled 'Chapter Thirteen' because the first chapter is the 'Prologue' on this website - so we are exactly half-way! Yay! Alright, I edited and rewrote this chapter more times than it is healthy probably, so yep, I am fretting once again. This time I am slightly worried that it might be a bit too cheesy in the middle... me doesn't like cheesy stories... Special thanks to cacata, whose review and PM prompted me to rewrite the first scene here. Oh, and by the way, thank you for all your wonderful reviews! To all the people who left a review and are guest reviewers well, I can tell you that hopefully none of you will be disappointed... I can't spoil anything though! Happy reading, dear readers!

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

Scorpius sent five hundred Galleons worth of silver articles to Nott & Goyle ltd.

Or not. Maybe he sent more than that, maybe he sent less. He was not an expert on precious metals and their value on the market, but he was sure that had he not reached the sum of Galleons that Scarlet was worth, Nott would have let him know straight away.

It had taken him a great effort to choose the items that he thought had the highest value amongst the ones stashed in the Trophy Room, and then shuffle the other trophies and plates around to cover the empty spaces he was leaving. He had to crouch in a corner far away from the prying eyes of the portrait of Brutus Scrimgeour to shrink them with a whispered, "_Reducio_", and finally he would sweat copiously as he walked the corridors during patrol, while he hoped that Potter couldn't hear the slight tinkling of the miniature medals and cups and awards in his pockets.

Until the day he felt he had piled enough silver in his trunk.

So Scorpius sent it to Nott & Goyle ltd. – and his Eagle Owl was very displeased with the little burden of shrunken items he had to bring all the way down to London, and made that painfully clear by biting Scorpius' fingers with a powerful snap of its beak as he tied the pouch around its claw –, and they finally sent back one of their trademark cards with Scorpius' full name, a date and a time, and Scarlet's name at the very bottom.

The day was the twenty-fifth of February.

The time, ten in the evening.

And Scorpius waited impatiently for that day to arrive.

He was terrified of McGonagall or Filch finding out about his thefts before he could make his way to Hogsmeade for the second time. But the day of his appointment arrived faster than he had expected and nobody, not even Potter, who came to pick him up in that room every evening, noticed that anything was missing. After all, probably the notion of a student stealing from Hogwarts sounded so absurd that nobody went to verify the state of the items after he carried out his detention night after night. And in addition, there were so many old and dusty things in that room that even when forty-six items had been taken – _stolen_, he reminded himself – it most likely made no difference at all.

Probably a second time wouldn't have gone unnoticed as well, but for now he didn't need to worry about that.

And the night of the appointment, Scorpius walked out of the school without thinking twice about what the Headmistress would have told him the following morning, once he had been found missing once again. He was ready to resign his Prefect badge. He didn't care.

He was going to see Scarlet.

That was all that mattered.

ooo

"It's such a pleasure to see you again, Mister Malfoy," had said Charles, his voice almost amused as he smirked at him. "Room number seven tonight, Sir, Freya will take you there."

A blonde girl had guided him through the corridor. Scorpius hadn't paid her any attention at all – he didn't even know if she had said anything to him. He had looked around himself the whole time, trying to memorise the place.

Apart from the thick curtain that led to the staircase, many doors opened on the round room. One led to the bedrooms where the girls met the clients, and that was the only one he had ever used. He suspected that one led to Nott's private rooms, as well as maybe those of the prostitutes, while he was afraid that one opened on to the playroom and whatever other depravity Nott had in there. Surely dungeons and cells for when the girls misbehaved.

_For when Scarlet misbehaved_.

The others… they could be fake doors, really, or they could lead anywhere, but he doubted they led outside, and that was the only thing that he needed to know.

"Scarlet will be with you shortly, Sir," said the girl with a slight smirk, as Scorpius opened the door and walked inside.

He looked around himself. The room looked the same as number fifteen and number ten, but the colour was yet again different. This one was blue, even though it had the same pieces of furniture and the same disposition of the other rooms. Scorpius took off his cloak and started to pace for the place.

He tried to list down once again all the questions that he had thought to ask her. All the questions that he needed to ask her. _What's the first thing that you can remember? How old were you when you started working here? Have you always lived here?_

And many other things, too many, he hoped an hour was enough, he wasn't sure, but he had to focus and, above all, make Scarlet focus. Tonight, her mind couldn't have wandered. They couldn't talk about Viridina or about spells. She had to listen and reply to his questions. She had to understand that he needed her to pay attention.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door that distracted him from his musings, and Scorpius turned his head so quickly that he could hear his neck creak. "Come in," he said hastily.

Like the time before, the door opened and closed too rapidly for him to notice the movement at all, and soon Scarlet was in his arms. He had opened them right before she was on him, knowing that she would hurry to hug him and wanting to be ready to welcome her. She pressed her little body against him, and he squeezed her tightly, leaning his cheek against the top of her head. Her silky hair was soft against his skin, and her nimble fingers gripped the back of his robes as if her life depended on it.

"I missed you," he whispered, unable to restrain himself.

She pressed herself even more forcefully against him. "I missed you too," she murmured. She raised her head to look at him and beamed. "Are we going to do magic tonight?" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

He shook his head and unhooked her arms from around his torso. He took her hand into his own and guided her towards the bed. "Sit down," he said, tightening his hand around hers as she motioned to go and sit on the floor. "No," he continued, "sit on the bed with me, tonight."

She smiled wide and sat next to him, looking impossibly happy to be so close to him.

He turned a bit towards her and stared gravely at her face. She mirrored his movements to look back at him, brown eyes wide with expectation.

"Scarlet," he started resolutely, "I need to ask you some things tonight."

Her lips parted in surprise and she nodded. "Yes," she replied, "everything you want, Scorpius."

He nodded back and took a deep breath. "What's your first memory?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

She frowned slightly, as if she found the question odd, but then she lowered her eyes in concentration while she tried to recall the first thing she could remember. "I… I…" she stuttered as she thought. "I think… I think my first memory is when I woke up in bed with Father one morning and he told me to dress quickly because I had to take a bath with the girls…"

"How old were you?"

She smiled at that, as if that was an easy question. "Nine, it was right after my birthday," she replied securely.

Scorpius swallowed. Nine. _Nine_. Lily's age when she had been kidnapped.

"I… I have other memories, you know," she added, fidgeting nervously, "but they feel different…"

"What do you mean?" asked Scorpius urgently.

She shook her head. "I don't know," she replied, "I have a memory of Father slapping me when I was five after I spilled a glass of milk, but it's all foggy, and one of him and Uncle Gregory laughing when I fell from a chair when I was little, but that too is all unfocused…"

He looked intently at her. Of course, if they were fake memories that would have explained why they felt different to her. But Merlin! Had she really started working there at the age of nine? _That was revolting_. Scorpius felt rage and disgust rising in his stomach. _A child_. She had been a little child when she started being the most expensive prostitute in Nott's brothel. He wanted to kill Nott with his bare hands at that very moment. He wanted to feel the life leaving his body under his fingertips.

"Have you always lived here?" he asked her, trying to suffocate his feelings.

She nodded. "Ever since I can remember," she replied softly.

So Nott had brought her there from her grandparents' house and never let her out. She had been outside, she just couldn't remember it. He swallowed and took a deep breath. "Have you ever heard of Harry Potter?" he finally asked.

She shook her head, and Scorpius felt rather more disappointment than he thought he should. "No," she replied, before cocking her head a bit. "Is he in a book?"

He nodded. "Many books," he told her softly, "he's famous."

She beamed at him. "Maybe you can tell me about him?" she asked Scorpius, hoping probably to hear a tale from him.

He shook his head firmly. "Not tonight."

Scarlet looked at him a bit taken aback and lowered her eyes. "Yes, sorry," he murmured meekly.

Scorpius took a deep breath. If only he could he would tell her everything. No, he didn't want to be the one to tell her everything. He wanted to look at her face as Harry Potter himself told her everything.

Everything about him.

_Everything about her._

He placed two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up to make her look at him. He smiled softly at her. "Not tonight, Scarlet," he repeated gently, "I need to ask you some more things."

Her brown eyes filled with confusion as if she didn't understand why he wanted to ask her so many things, but nonetheless, she nodded.

He smiled at her. "How do you know that Theodore Nott is your father?"

She looked at him her mouth a perfect 'o' of surprise. "I know," she said softly, "I just… I just know… he told me."

Of course. "Scarlet, if you close your eyes and focus, are you sure… are you sure that you have never been in any other place but this one?"

She beamed at him. "Oh, but I've been in so many places! I've been in all the places that Viridina has been, and I've been to Hogwarts and I've been around the world with Newt Scamander as he looked for his fantastic beasts and—"

"No," he cut her off more roughly than he had wanted, "no, real places, Scarlet. Outside. I don't know, a house with a garden and a pond, or Diagon Alley, or… I don't know… a station."

She shook her head. "No," she replied dejectedly. "I've never been anywhere." She looked up at him and added, "I'm sorry, Scorpius…" her voice tiny.

"It's not your fault," he said softly, shaking his head.

"Maybe you can tell me about them?" she asked gently, her beam again stretching her lips.

"No, Scarlet," he replied almost impatiently, "not tonight."

She looked at his face, probably crestfallen to have annoyed him a little bit. She slid from the bed to her knees and hugged his waist, leaning her head onto his lap and starting to cry. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, "I'm sorry, Father is right, I'm only a silly, little girl… I'm sorry…"

Scorpius placed his hands on her head and started to caress her hair. He still had to ask her so many things, and she just wanted him to tell her stories. But it wasn't her fault. She couldn't imagine why he needed to know these things, nor he could tell her. It was too dangerous. What if she said something in front of Nott and he punished her and next time Scorpius came he didn't let him see her?

He slid a hand down her arm and she raised her head to look at him. He wrapped his finger around her soft flesh and guided her back on the bed, closer to him, until her knees bumped into his.

"You are not a silly, little girl," he murmured seriously. He cupped her cheeks and brushed away her tears. "You are perfect," he told her, stretching his neck to plant a kiss on her forehead. "And I want to tell you everything, every story and tale that I know, but I can't tonight, Scarlet, okay? I… I just need to ask you more things… about you…"

She nodded, but looked disconsolate. "But you already know everything about me, Scorpius," she whispered.

He nodded back. "I know what you do all day," he agreed, restraining himself from adding, 'and all night'. "But I need to know what you used to do before you worked here."

She shook her head, still confused. "Nothing," she replied softly, "I've always worked here."

"Do you have anything… anything that your father didn't give you? Anything… a piece of clothing, a ribbon, a bracelet…"

She shook her head. "No."

"Do you ever dream of people you've never met?" he went on asking, his tone almost frantic now. He didn't know what he was looking for; some proof, some tangible proof, maybe, that she was not Scarlet Nott. That she was someone else.

_That she was Lily Luna Potter_.

She lowered her eyes. "No," she replied, her voice tiny. Her cheeks flushed slightly and she seemed to want to add something, but she didn't.

He swallowed and asked, "Does the name Lily tell you anything?"

He was not an expert on how Memory Charms worked exactly. But he remembered that they had studied that each one was different, depending on what the caster wanted to erase. And Nott had seemed to have wanted to erase every bit of her life until the day he had taken her away.

She shook her head. "No," she replied, before sniffling. "I'm sorry…"

He furrowed his brow. "Why?" he asked confused.

"Because I don't know anything," she sobbed.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "No," he whispered soothingly, "it's all right, Scarlet." After all, now that he thought about it, that was exactly the proof that he needed. She didn't remember anything, not only her family and herself, but she didn't remember Nott before she was nine, and when she did she was confused, as if those memories had been planted there by someone else.

She _had to be_ Potter's daughter.

She _had to be_ Lily Luna Potter.

Yes. Scorpius didn't need to ask her anything else. _He was sure now_. He had been sure for a while, but the absurdity of it all had made him doubt it. Made him doubt her identity.

They stayed one in the arms of the other for more time than Scorpius thought it should have been wise. But even though he had more questions for her, he didn't need to ask her any of them, and he just couldn't bring himself to let her go. She was small and soft and smelled so good. She was breathing softly against his neck and his flesh was covered in goose bumps right there were her breath tickled him. He wondered if she could hear his frantic heartbeat, if she could feel that her proximity did something to him, if she could notice that he had to take shallow breaths to calm down and shift on the bed to hide his half-hard member.

He didn't care if she noticed though. He just didn't want to let her go. _Ever_.

But he had to. Time was flying. He didn't even know for how long he had kept her in his arms. For too short a time, honestly. He wanted to keep her there for all his life. He closed his eyes and saw himself at the Manor, with Scarlet by his side curled on a couch in the drawing room and a merry fire crackling in the hearth. He saw himself kissing her and heard her giggling against his lips. He imagined her little digits threading through his blond hair.

With great effort, he opened his eyes and forced himself out of his reverie. He unwrapped his arms from around her body and made her tilt her head back. "Scarlet," he said seriously, "don't tell your father anything about this, okay?"

She nodded, her eyes wide and her lips parted in her usual surprised expression.

He smiled softly at her. "Good," he whispered, "good…" He pulled some locks behind her ear and brushed her cheek lightly with his fingertips. He wanted to _kiss_ her. He wanted to kiss her so badly that the desire burned through his veins and made him ache.

And somehow the fact that Scarlet Nott was a prostitute didn't matter.

And not even the little detail that Lily Luna Potter was the only daughter of the Head Auror and sister to Albus Potter.

Scorpius didn't care. Whoever she was, he had fallen head over heels in love with her, and all he wanted was to take her away from that place.

Take her away from Nott.

"Scarlet…" he murmured, looking at her ruby lips.

"Yes," she breathed, waiting probably for him to say something, _anything_.

"I… I want to… I need to…"

But once again it felt as if the bell had known his intentions, because every time he was about to kiss her, the infernal sound bounced on the walls of the room.

Scarlet whimpered at the sound, her white, soft hands gripping the front of his robes. "You'll come back?" she asked frantically.

"I promise," he murmured, bringing his lips to her forehead to kiss her again.

Then the second bell rang, much sooner than he had expected, and she looked at him longingly before standing up and hurrying outside. Once again she was gone too quickly for him to even say goodbye.

Scorpius sighed as he grabbed his cloak and started to wear it. He had wanted to tell her that next time he would come back he was going to take her with him. But he had no idea how to do it or when would that be. And he couldn't risk her saying anything, not even to her house-elf – because what if the creature told on her? And then what if the next time he booked an appointment with her they forbade him from seeing her?

He shook his head to send those scary thoughts away.

But how, how could he have taken her out of there? Maybe he should have alerted the Aurors, but then he would have been sentenced to Azkaban for having been with Scarlet, even though he had never been with her at all. He wondered if his word – and maybe hers, if someone asked her – would have been enough against the registries where his name appeared so many times next to hers.

Again, he tried to send those thoughts away, but he only managed to end up thinking about what awaited him when he would go back to Hogwarts, because surely Potter had told on him once again. Surely McGonagall was waiting for him at the gate. Maybe she had found out about the missing pieces from the Trophy Room after all. Maybe he was going to be kicked out of school… but suddenly, he didn't even care that much. School seemed such a stupid thing at that moment. Especially when he thought about Scarlet and her life.

He had lived all his life like a spoiled prince and the girl he loved was a slave. How could he care about something as trivial as school when he thought about that? He was not even going to work after Hogwarts, he was a Malfoy, he had a fortune to spend as he liked, he didn't need to conclude his studies. He wanted to stay in his Manor with Scarlet. With _Lily_. He wanted to be with her forever.

He shook his head as his heart clenched at those thoughts. He finally walked towards the door, opening it and stopping in his tracks as he looked down at the tanned and cunning face of Lulu.

"Mister Malfoy," she said with a sneer, "Mister Nott would like to talk to you."

Scorpius swallowed hard. "Why?" he asked dryly.

Lulu smirked in response. "If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you to his office," she replied, and Scorpius suspected that she as well didn't know why the owner of the brothel would want to talk to him.

And Scorpius didn't want to follow her. What did Nott want? He hoped fervently that it was something about the payment he had made. Money was not a problem, he would have told him to contact his father; Draco Malfoy would have barked and howled but he would have paid in the end and after that all Scorpius needed was more money to see her. One last time.

_But what if Nott_… Scorpius didn't even know. What if Nott had noticed something? But something like what? He had told Scarlet not to say a word to her father and she had nodded and promised him. But what if he had other ways to get to know things? What if he had used Veritaserum on her or if he spied on them when he came to see her? What if he was going to tell him to never come back?

Scorpius felt his heart growing heavier as he finally stepped out of the room and followed Lulu into the corridor. She walked swiftly and he had to hurry to keep up with her. She guided him all the way back into the round room and closed the door at his back when they were inside.

Scorpius glanced furtively at Charles, but the man was busy with a client and didn't even look back at him. Lulu, though, guided him towards one of the many doors in the room and opened it for him.

"Follow the corridor, Sir," she told him, brushing his back with her hand, "it's the door at the very end."

Scorpius nodded stiffly and walked inside. The moment the door closed at his back lights sparkled to life on the walls. He swallowed again. He had to stay calm and look composed. He hadn't done anything wrong. He had just talked to her. Was that the problem? Did he have to have sex with her? Was that mandatory when one booked an hour with a prostitute? What if one didn't want to? He would have accused Nott of violation of privacy if he had anything to say to him about that.

He could feel his heart in his throat as he stepped in front of the door that sported the name of the man that he so much hated now.

He raised his hand to knock, but Nott's voice reached him loud and clear before his knuckles could even touch the wood. "Come in," he said calmly.

Scorpius bit his bottom lip as he pushed the door open.

Nott was sitting at his desk, apparently busy writing some documents. He smiled and gestured for Scorpius to sit on a comfortable armchair opposite to him, but didn't even look at him as the young man followed his wordless directions.

"Hello, young Malfoy," the wizard finally greeted him when he closed the folder in front of him. He looked at him and smiled almost affably.

"Mister Nott," replied Scorpius stiffly.

"I hope I'm not keeping you from anything important," he said calmly, "even though I couldn't help noticing that tonight is a school night and if I'm not mistaken you should be at Hogwarts."

Scorpius shifted nervously. "You are not mistaken," he replied icily, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm surprised Professor McGonagall would let you roam freely for the country at night while at school," he continued, "especially to visit a prostitute."

Scorpius gritted his teeth. "Obviously, she doesn't know."

Nott laughed. "_Obviously_," he repeated. "I don't think she would allow anything like that if she knew." He smirked and added, "Ah, what one does for a woman, young Malfoy, am I right? Especially one like _Scarlet_." Her name rolled on his tongue almost vulgarly and Scorpius couldn't help thinking that that name didn't belong on that man's lips.

"Especially one like her," replied Scorpius coldly, his grey eyes narrowing as he stared at the man in front of him with hatred.

Then something flashed in his mind. An idea. A risky, stupid idea. An idea that had no business being executed, especially because Scorpius was already sure of Scarlet's identity. But he felt like he wanted to try it. For some unknown reason, deep inside, Scorpius wanted to try it. He crossed his arms on his chest and almost smirked at him, feeling suddenly bold. "She's beautiful like a flower, isn't she?" he asked softly. "Yes, pretty and innocent-looking like a _lily_ flower…"

Scorpius' voice trailed away and his words hung in the air for a long moment after he had stopped talking, but then the boy had to grit his teeth to keep himself from reacting to Nott's reaction.

It had only been a flicker over the man's face, quick like the flutter of the wings of a butterfly, but his muscles had tensed for a spare second, his eyes had flashed with a sinister light as he glared at Scorpius at the mention of the flower.

Oh yes.

_She was just like a lily_.

No.

_She actually was Lily_.

Scorpius smirked at him. "Isn't she though?" he asked calmly.

"She most certainly is not," he replied coldly, before barking out a laughter. "There's nothing innocent and pretty about a prostitute. She's very skilled in the art of pleasing a man, though. But I'm sure you know everything about that, young Malfoy."

Scorpius felt the colour drain from his face as he listened to him, his audacity from before completely forgotten as he tried to push images of Lily and Nott in bed from his brain. "Yes," he replied icily.

"Even though," said Nott, thoughtfully, "I don't think you've taken her in the arse yet, am I right?" He smirked and added, "She squeals and cries so deliciously when someone does. You can hear her throughout the whole whorehouse."

Scorpius felt nausea rise inside his stomach. He didn't even want to think about that. The very thought of Scarlet crying as someone took her like an animal made him sick. He stared coldly at Nott and didn't reply.

Nott sneered at him, surely sensing his discomfort like an animal sensing fear. "But I'm glad you find her of your liking, young Malfoy. I've never seen someone come back quite that often for a prostitute. Not even for her." He raised his eyebrows and smirked. "But then not many people have access to such sums of money as you do."

"I imagine they don't," he replied frostily.

Nott nodded, cocking his head. "She's worth that money, though," he said, before adding in a lower tone of voice, "but one has to be careful not to start feeling something for her." He looked at him with a piercing stare. "She's a prostitute after all, and she doesn't know what love is, all she has always known is lust. The lust of many men before you, Malfoy, and even after you. Long after you'll get tired of her company and forget her, she'll still be here, pleasing man after man and bringing money to my humble enterprise."

Scorpius' hands balled into fists, he was not sure he could hide the hatred on his face at that moment. He wanted to hex him. He wanted to kill him and go get Scarlet and disappear into the night with her. Let her know that he would never get tired of her. _He could never get tired of her_.

"I'm afraid I have to go, Mister Nott," he muttered, his voice like ice. "It is a school night after all, as you pointed out."

"Of course," said Nott, standing up. "I understand." He smirked and added, "Please, do send us more of those valuables in case you want to require her services again, Malfoy."

"I will," replied Scorpius, standing up, turning on his heels and walking towards the door.

"Malfoy," Nott called him before he could walk out.

Scorpius stopped and look at him from over his shoulder.

"She's not the flower you think she is," said Nott, his voice far tenser than a few seconds before.

Scorpius stared at him warily, before smirking softly. "Then I must have mistaken her for someone else," he replied, giving him his back again as he opened the door and walked into the corridor.

"Malfoy," Nott called him one last time.

This time Scorpius didn't even turn as the man hissed, "I'd rather see her dead than have her taken away from me."

And then the door slammed shut, and Scorpius' insides turned to ice as he let Nott's words sink into his brain.

ooo

Scarlet didn't fall asleep that night.

She passed out under Nott, after he took her for the third time.

He exited her tight cunt with difficulty, his own muscles strained with the effort of thrusting into her with fury, his body covered in sweat. He collapsed next to Scarlet and manoeuvred her body until she was facing him. His arms wrapped around her in a mocking gesture of love. He brushed her matted hair from her face and made her tilt her limp head up.

"What do I have to do with you, my little flower?" he whispered to her. "Should I have died your hair? Should I have scarred your face? Should I have cut off your tongue?" He looked at her closed eyes and caressed her flushed cheek. "But then you wouldn't have been Potter's daughter anymore, and I needed to preserve you like I found you, I needed to see your mother on your face every single day… You are my spoil of war. He might have taken all my money and my business, but I took you from him." He squeezed her in his arms and she whined pitifully in her sleep. "But that Malfoy boy is not as stupid as I thought he was… We will have to guard ourselves from him, my little flower…" He kissed her on her forehead and smirked, "We don't want him to take you away from me…"


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Notes:** Well, hello my dear readers! Looks like it's Wednesday once again! For the first time, though, I shall not dwell on silly matters in this author's note. Au contraire, I have to give you a big WARNING for an explicit (but short) femmeslash scene in the second half of the chapter. But, as always, it's quite a necessary scene, something will happen that is going to be important later in the story. I swear. Also, hashi, you are driving me up the wall with all your nice reviews that I have no possibility to reply to because you are a guest reviewer! Urgh! Thank you so much for being so nice with me, though! Thank you to all of you, really!

**Shameless advertising of my newest story: **(In case you haven't already checked it out! - Some of you have, thank you for that, guys!) I just wrote a one-shot and posted it (here and on AO3) on Sunday evening. If you are reading this story because of the pairing, then you might like that story as well. As always it's a Scorpius/Lily. If you are reading this story because of the dark themes, then you might like that one as well since it features alcohol abuse and attempted human trafficking (it does! Solemnly swear! Don't try to convince me of the contrary!). Extra warning for extreme and pointless fluff. The story is called "Of Chocolate Cauldrons and Birthday Wishes" and you can find it on my profile if you are interested... If you are not, just forget about it... :D

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

Scorpius was feeling the urge to confess to Professor McGonagall that he had been to a whorehouse. Just for fun really, because if her face was already all red now, he could only imagine how she would have looked once he had delivered that piece of information. Maybe she would have started to sprout whiskers as the rage took hold of her senses and she half transformed into a cat.

But that foolish thought was quick to pass – unlike the night before when he had not-so-subtly hinted to Nott that he knew about Scarlet's real identity – and instead he sat there in silence, listening to her as she told him that he had lost all his Prefect privileges with his latest bravado, that she was going to summon his parents, that if he broke the school rules one more time he would have been expelled.

He pretended to care and look contrite, when in reality all he wanted to do was bolting from that chair and going somewhere where he could think in all tranquillity. Think about how to find the money that he needed and how to get Scarlet out of that place.

"And tell your friend he's lucky I don't summon his parents as well!" snapped Professor McGonagall indignantly. "He didn't report you when he knew you were missing! Outrageous!"

Scorpius furrowed his brow. "Who are you talking about?" he asked slightly more harshly than he had intended. "Professor," he added as an afterthought.

She looked sharply at him. "Mister Potter," she replied curtly, "he knew perfectly well that you were gone and he didn't say anything. Not a single word!"

"What? Why?" asked Scorpius in disbelief.

Professor McGonagall ignored him as she opened a drawer and took out a quill and a piece of parchment. "I will write to your parents, Mister Malfoy," she said severely, "they must be informed. They need to come here, and I shall talk to them." She looked at him and took a deep breath, probably trying to calm herself down. "Is there anything you would like to tell me before I write to them, Mister Malfoy?"

Scorpius lowered his eyes and shook his head. "No, Professor," he replied softly.

She took another deep breath, her nostrils flaring with the motion. "Very well," she said sternly, "you may go, Mister Malfoy."

Scorpius nodded and stood up. He heard the scraping of the quill on the parchment and groaned at what his parents would have told him once they came to Hogwarts. His mother would have either turned crimson with rage or she would have paled with indignation, because she surely would have known straight away where he had been. And his father would have wondered where he had found the money for the prostitute this time… but Scorpius hoped he wasn't going to ask him in front of Professor McGonagall.

Scorpius closed the door at his back and shook his head. Surely his father wouldn't have asked him _that_ in front of the Headmistress. That would have meant admitting that he knew that his son was frequenting a brothel, and Professor McGonagall was a close friend to Potter's father. She wouldn't have thought twice about reporting Scorpius' parents and Scorpius himself. No, his father wouldn't have said anything in front of her, but afterwards, surely, he would have hauled him over the coals.

But maybe Scorpius could have gone back to Nott & Goyle and taken Scarlet away before his parents arrived. And then they would have been on the run together. He shook his head again, almost furiously this time, to send that thought away. He didn't want her to be on the run, she had to go back to her family. Her _real_ family. Even though she didn't remember them at all.

But how? _How_? He was sure that Nott suspected that he knew something. The way he had looked at him, surely he had known that Scorpius had not just said the first flower name that came to his mind when he had described her. _Surely Nott knew that he knew_. He had been quite stupid to say her name out loud in his face in that challengingly way. He should have kept silent. For Scarlet's sake.

Now that he thought about it, what if Nott made him pay for his nerve? And even though Scorpius was not afraid of what he might have done to him, he feared for Scarlet… No, _Lily_, he had to start calling her Lily. She was not Scarlet Nott, she was Lily Luna Potter. And what if the night before she had been punished because of him? Scorpius would have never forgiven himself if—

"You are an idiot."

Scorpius stopped in his tracks and raised his eyes to look into the dark ones of Emeric Zabini. He snorted loudly and sneered, "Well, coming from the dimmest Ravenclaw I know, it's almost a compliment."

Zabini didn't bulge. "You just got de-Prefected," he pointed out. "Rose is fuming and I have no clue how to untwist her knickers this time. To add to that, Albus almost had to give back his badge as well, since he saw you getting out of the castle last night and didn't say a word nor he tried to stop you."

Scorpius glanced at him and frowned. "Yeah, McGonagall mentioned something like that too," he replied, faking nonchalance, "why was that again?"

Zabini shook his head. "No idea," he said, "but Rose is giving him a roasting."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Why is she so unhappy that she doesn't have to order me around anymore?" he grunted. "She'll be given another Prefect to boss about before midday, someone who will cause much less trouble than me, and everybody will live happily ever after."

Zabini shook his head again. "Didn't you hear? No new Prefects," he replied, "we are one short and need to reschedule all the patrols from now to June."

Scorpius didn't care. All he wanted was to go some place quiet and think about a way to get Scarlet out of the brothel. _Think hard_. He wished he could talk to Zabini about her. He was quite intelligent, after all, he called him dim just to get on his nerves – something that Scorpius failed to do regularly since Emeric was probably the most patient person he knew.

Weasley too, she was intelligent. She was definitely more intelligent than himself, Potter and Zabini put together…

Scorpius brought a hand to his temple and suddenly realisation dawned on him. Scarlet… _Lily_, she was… she was _Weasley's cousin_. Scorpius should have told Rose Weasley about her. Or better, he should have told Potter, really… because Potter was her brother… But then… what would Potter do? Call his father and get Nott to kill Scarlet the moment a horde of Aurors barged into the brothel.

_I'd rather see her dead than have her taken away from me_, that was what Nott had promised.

But Potter had something… he had something that Scorpius might have needed, something that might have helped him in what he wanted to do… the Slytherin couldn't deny that things would have been ten times easier if he owned an Invisibility Cloak just like Albus Severus Potter did…

Zabini snorted loudly and Scorpius blinked. "What?" he asked as he saw the Ravenclaw's lips moving without hearing a word he said.

"Rose is right," sighed Zabini, "you never ever listen."

ooo

Scarlet could see Taffy's feet as they scampered around the bedroom. She bit her bottom lip and tried to hold her breath, sliding noiselessly towards the darkest corner under the bed.

_She didn't want to take her bath. _

Something was wrong those days. Her father had never been crueller than what he was now with her, and the girls just revelled in that. They had tried to drown Scarlet two times in the past week, and Freya had told her to call her handsome knight to save her, and they had all laughed at her.

And Scarlet's eyes had filled with tears. Their words hurt more than their nails on her skin, because she knew that her handsome knight could not save her. Only in her dreams maybe, when he came and sat down with her and listened to her as she read to him and he told her that he loved her. And in her dreams, he took her outside and she could feel the sun on her skin and the wind in her hair and hear the chirp of the birds that filled the air.

She closed her eyes and smiled at that. In her dreams, the sun and the wind had felt almost real, as if she had known those feelings from somewhere. Of course, she remembered reading about Viridina as she perched from the window of the tower. They described her so well, the sun, the wind, the leaves of the trees that fluttered in the meadows. So well that in her dreams she could almost feel the softness of grass under her naked feet.

She opened her eyes again and sucked in her breath. Taffy was staring at her, eyes wide and a contrite expression over her face.

"Miss Scarlet needs to take her bath," she squealed almost apologetically.

Scarlet felt the tears swell up in her eyes. "I don't want to, Taffy," she murmured dejectedly.

The house-elf let out a whining noise and stretched her little, brown hand to grasp her wrist. "Taffy will protect Miss Scarlet," she promised, tugging at her arm to get her out of there.

Scarlet looked at her with eyes as big as saucers and as shiny as stars, trying to tell her, without words, that she really needed her protection. She slid from under the bed and sat on the floor with her back against the wall, her knees up to her chest and her bottom lip quivering slightly.

"Miss Scarlet needs not be afraid," murmured Taffy, patting her arm lightly, "Taffy will protect Miss Scarlet."

Scarlet nodded softly as the coarse fingers of the elf brushed away her tears before she could even shed them. She tried to smile at the creature and the elf squealed in delight as she helped her up. Her little, brown hand tightened on the girl's wrist, though, as if Taffy was afraid that she would escape and hide some other place. Scarlet would do just that, really, if she could find a place where she was sure that neither Taffy nor her father would be able to find her. But there was no place like that there. The elf always knew where to find her and her father as well, she could not get away from them.

Taffy dragged her out of the room and into the corridor. The cold stone floor dug cruelly into her naked feet, and she almost tripped over to keep up with the creature's quick pace. The closer they got to the bathroom door the louder the laughter and chatting of the girls became, and Scarlet's heart skipped a beat at the thought of entering in there. Her mouth dried and she felt fear gripping her insides at what was yet again awaiting her.

But Taffy seemed to ignore her discomfort, and instead she just pushed the door open and dragged her inside.

All the chatter and laughter died away the moment they walked through the door, and the girls turned to look at Scarlet as if she were a kitten and they were a pack of starving Crups.

"Well, well, well," sniggered Lulu, looking at her from a small stool. Her long, curly locks were all sleek and shiny with some potion and she looked like she had stopped brushing her hair to turn towards Scarlet, because she held her brush still tightly in her hand. "Someone is a bit late for her bath," she said with a sneer.

Scarlet's hand searched Taffy's, but the house-elf had left her side to go prepare a tub and the girl whined pitifully as she looked for the creature and hurried towards her.

"Now, now," said Freya, walking towards Scarlet and grabbing her arm, her nails digging into her skin. "I hardly think you want to take from us the pleasure of preparing you for another night of hard work, am I right, Scarlet?"

Scarlet tried to wriggle her arm out of Freya's fingers, but Ebony gripped her shoulders and brought her fleshy lips to her ear. "No, you don't want to do that, do you?" she whispered, grasping the straps of her dress to drag it down her body.

"No," whined Scarlet, trying to grab the dress before they tore it from her.

"Don't touch Miss Scarlet," squealed Taffy, as she hurried to stand next to them.

"Shut up, elf," snarled Ebony, kicking the creature and sending her to the floor with a squeal.

"No!" cried Scarlet, wriggling out of the hands of the two girls and kneeling next to the elf. She tried to reach Taffy to help her to her feet again, but Ebony grasped her hair and pulled her back, laughing.

"Bring her here," said Lulu, parting her legs.

Ebony sniggered, pulling Scarlet to her feet before pushing her towards Lulu.

She landed on her hands and knees, only a few inches from Lulu, her legs and palms throbbing as she came into contact with the hard tiles of the floor.

Lulu's fingers enlaced into her long hair, she tilted Scarlet's head up and made her look into her eyes. "You know what," she sneered, "I really want to know why you are worth five hundred Galleons." She traced Scarlet's jaw with a long finger until she reached her chin and grabbed it between her thumb and forefinger. "Open wide," she whispered to her with a smirk, "I want to feel your tongue."

Scarlet whimpered as Lulu pulled her head forward. She had to grab the girl's thighs to steady herself as the musky smell of her folds filled her nostrils. Lulu moved on the stool until she was sitting on the edge and arched her back as she pushed Scarlet's face against her centre.

"Hmm," she murmured as Scarlet's nose bumped into her clit, "that's it."

Scarlet tried to push back against Lulu's legs, her eyes half-closed as she pressed her lips together and sobbed, she didn't want to subdue to the disgusting request of the older woman. She didn't want to open her mouth to give her pleasure.

But Lulu tightened her fingers in her hair and tugged harshly. "I said," she hissed, "use your tongue!" She pushed herself against her face and ground, and Scarlet could feel someone grasping her wrists and pulling them behind her back as she was pushed forward.

Scarlet scrunched her eyes close and whimpered slightly as she finally obeyed the girl and parted her lips to stick out her tongue.

Lulu tasted sour.

Lulu tasted like iron and lemon.

Lulu tasted of too many men, and the more Scarlet flattened her tongue against her clit, the wetter she became. Soon her juices were flowing out of her slack hole, and Scarlet felt her lips and chin being coated with the sticky, white liquid while the musky smell of the woman made her nauseous.

"Hmm," murmured Lulu, her thighs quivering near Scarlet's head.

"Is she good?" asked Ebony somewhere close to Scarlet's ear.

As a reply, Lulu's fingers tightened in her hair and she moaned loudly.

Ebony laughed. "I want to try her too later," she whispered, kissing Scarlet's temple.

"Ugly girls will not try Miss Scarlet!" squealed Taffy and Scarlet could hear her little feet hurrying to her side, without being able to see her.

"Little, insolent monster!" snarled Freya, "I'm going to hex you for good this time."

Scarlet tried to scream and worm away, but her voice was muffled against Lulu's folds and the hands of the girls were like iron on her body. She heard Taffy squeal impotently, and felt her heart skip a beat. She started to struggle more forcefully, until both Ebony and Lulu were painfully digging their nails into her flesh, drawing blood.

She cried and started to shake, feeling utterly defenceless in the hands of the girls. She wanted to reach Taffy, she wanted to hug her and let her take them both back into her room. She wanted to disappear from there, she wanted them to let her go… she… she wanted to… she wanted to…

Suddenly, Ebony let her go and screamed, she took a step back and Scarlet heard her falling to the floor with a loud thud. Lulu's grip on her hair slackened and Scarlet was able to push against her thighs and sit back on the warm tiles, out of the woman's grasp. Her cheeks were covered in tears she didn't know she had shed and her chin was slick with Lulu's juices as she turned and looked at Ebony writhing on the floor.

Scarlet stared at the scene with her mouth wide open and her heart beating furiously in her chest.

There was a towel around Ebony's neck and it was squeezing and wrapping itself tightly around her skin, like a snake with a prey. Her dark lips were parted as if she couldn't breathe, and her eyes were bulging out of their orbs. She was trying to loosen the towel, but every time she managed to move it a bit away from her, it quickly went back to wrap itself tightly around her neck once again.

"What are you doing?" screamed a plump girl with blond hair. "Stop it!"

"You bitch!" cried someone else.

"Let her go!"

Scarlet gaped with her eyes wide as the dark-skinned girl squirmed and squealed while the other girls started to crowd around her.

Lulu grasped her hair again to turn her head to make her look at her. "What are you doing?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes. "Let her go!"

"I'm not doing anything," whined Scarlet, her hands going to her scalp where Lulu had scratched her earlier.

"Stop it!" cried Freya, letting Taffy go and going to kneel next to Ebony to try to wrestle the towel from her body.

"I don't know how," whimpered Scarlet as Lulu tugged at her hair.

Someone pointed her wand to the towel and cried, "_Finite Incantatem_." And even though the towel stopped squeezing for a few seconds it resumed its slithering almost immediately.

"Scarlet!" snarled someone.

Scarlet started to cry. "I don't know how…"

Then Taffy was at her side again, her brown face a mask of fear. "Miss Scarlet has to stop it," whispered the elf urgently, "Miss Scarlet is going to kill Ebony."

Lulu let her go and scrambled to her feet as Ebony's struggles became more and more feeble.

"Miss Scarlet…" whined Taffy, staring at Ebony through the legs of the girls.

Scarlet sobbed loudly and hid her face in her hands. _Stop it, stop it, stop it_, she chanted in her head, hitting her forehead with her palms as if it could help her bringing the magic to an end. She felt Taffy's comforting hand on her shoulder and turned to hug the elf.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it finished.

Scarlet heard Ebony cough, and then the girls were helping her up and bringing her water and patting her back and hugging her as if she was some kind of heroine. The towel was now immobile on the floor and the girls were asking all worriedly if everything was okay.

Scarlet closed her eyes and hugged Taffy more forcefully, trying to find comfort in the arms of the little creature and wanting more than anything to disappear from that place forever.

"We're going to tell Daddy about this," snarled Lulu.

"He's going to close you in the playroom for a week!" sneered Freya.

The girls laughed at that, even Ebony, and Scarlet whimpered and sobbed as Taffy guided her towards the tub that she had filled for her.

The first thing she did was to wash her face from Lulu's juices, and then she started crying again.

She cried until Freya told her to stop unless she wanted to be hexed until she bled.

And so she stopped and waited silently until all the girls had left the bathroom before she started sobbing again.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Okay, now that you've read this, go and read my one-shot! (I mean, if you want to my dear readers...) Sorry for the femmeslash rape scene! Those damn girls, right? But at least, Scarlet's managing to rebel a little - now, if the poor thing wasn't just scared out of her wits..


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Notes:** Well, thank you so very much for reading my one-shot (sorry, it IS a one-shot), guys! I'm glad all the people who reviewed it liked it, for me it was a nice distraction from the dark themes in this story. Anyway, speaking of _this_ story, I somehow like this chapter. I like every scene in it, and then I like the upcoming chapters even more. I can hardly wait to post them. Warning though: I am not convinced with my verb tenses in this chapter. Lots of past perfects that I am not quite sure have any business being there. Ah, I think that as soon as all the stories that I have in the making are done with, I will have this story beta-read! A bit like what I'm doing with "Not Now, Nor Never". Sorry if you have to endure my less-than-perfect language here! Hope you manage to enjoy it anyway!

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

"I don't want to go."

Harry's shoulders slumped forward as he looked at his wife. "Ginny…"

She shook her head firmly. "You know what I think," she replied darkly.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a quick glance. Harry knew. They all knew what she thought, all of them, not just the ones sitting in the living room of the Burrow that afternoon. All, from James to Arthur to Bill to Lucy to Angelina to Victoire…

"It's just a walk in the fields," replied Harry gently. "I promise I told James and Teddy where we were going and…" He was going to say that _if something happened they would be informed straight away_, but it had been more than six years now and nothing had ever happened. "…and they know where to find us," he finished softly.

Ginny snorted. "In the fields? How?" She crossed her arms and looked towards the fireplace, something flickered in her eyes. Hope? Expectation? Harry couldn't say.

"Ginny," said Ron, leaning his elbows on his knees as he perched forward on the couch where he was sitting next to Hermione, "it's just an hour. A bit of fresh air will do you good."

Ginny didn't even look at him. "There's plenty of fresh air in here as well," she retorted, "I came all the way from London for some fresh, Devon air."

"A walk," continued Ron, smiling weakly at his sister, "just a walk. We could go and have tea in that pub in Ottery, how about that? Like we used to do when we were children."

"No."

Harry took a deep breath as he slid from the couch to kneel next to Ginny. He tried to close his fingers around her hand, but she wouldn't let him, she wormed it away from his touch and tucked it under her arm. "Ginny, darling, what's wrong?"

She snorted and shook her head, but her resolute expression faltered a little. "You know perfectly well what's wrong," she almost hissed.

Harry took a deep breath. "Is it… is it the memorial still?" he asked dejectedly. "I told you we were not doing it. I told you it was just a stupid idea… I'm sorry I even thought about it." Oh, how much he regretted having thought about that, now! The very mention of a memorial for Lily managed to throw Ginny into the deepest pit of despair. And to be honest, Harry felt just like her: he knew he wouldn't have been able to sit through a memorial service held for his daughter without crying his heart content, but somehow he had felt like it was a good way to make things better. In which way it would have made things better though, he couldn't remember anymore.

"It's not _just_ the memorial," snapped Ginny. "It's… it's… _everything_."

"Everything what?" asked Ron.

Ginny shook her head. "Everything," she hissed, "you just… you don't understand…"

"Ginny—"

"I heard you, you know," she said, looking at Ron, "the other day, you said that _Lily was such a lovely child_." Her eyes shone with restrained tears. "You said _was_!"

Ron looked at her uncomfortably as he leaned back against the couch and moved involuntarily closer to Hermione. "I meant that she would not be a child anymore," he murmured, lowering his eyes, "I meant that now she would be a teenager, like… like Hugo…"

Ginny stomped her foot on the floor. "You're doing it again!" she cried. "She _is_ a teenager!"

Ron looked at Hermione as if to ask for her help. But Harry suspected that if his sister-in-law had kept silent until that moment there was a perfectly good reason for that. He also suspected that the explanation was that keeping their mouths shut was the right thing to do there. But he just couldn't keep silent when Ginny looked so dejected once again.

"Ginny," sighed Harry as he turned to look at her, "we don't know what happened to her…"

"You think she's dead," she cried, looking from Harry to Ron to Hermione. "You all do!"

The silence that descended after Ginny's accusation was heavier than a rock on their shoulders. Silently they were all agreeing that yes, they thought she was dead.

"We don't know, Ginny," murmured Ron after what felt like hours.

She looked at him, the back of her hand brushing away her tears almost furiously. "I do," she snapped, "I do."

"You can't know," said Ron almost pitifully.

"I know!" she almost snarled at him. "I know, because she is my daughter!"

It was with great relief that Harry looked as Hermione stood up and went to Ginny. She slid her arm under Ginny's armpit and helped her up. "Let's go," she said softly, "let's have a cup of tea."

Ginny looked at her with her brown eyes wide, before leaning against her. "You know, Hermione, don't you?" she whispered. "You know what I mean…"

Hermione nodded as she guided her towards the kitchen of the Burrow. "I do," she murmured.

Harry looked as they disappeared through the door, and finally he turned towards his best-friend. Ron's pale face sported a desperate expression as he looked at Harry with eyes filled with pity. "I don't know if she's alive, Harry," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

Harry closed his eyes and nodded. "I know." And then he had to take a deep breath to try to keep the tears at bay.

He didn't succeed.

ooo

Scorpius waited for Potter.

He waited for him after Herbology.

The Slytherin was actually glad that Albus Potter knew Professor Longbottom that well. And he was glad for the fact that the Gryffindor would always stay behind to chat with him for a bit after their lessons, because now Scorpius was presented with the perfect opportunity to talk to him alone, without anybody overhearing them.

Still, sometimes it took them ages to just chatter about a bloody Mandrake or a stupid Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Or whatever they blabbed about when they weren't talking about plants. _How's the family, how's the inn, what's for dinner tonight._ _Whatever_.

But Scorpius had to wait. He hadn't had time to talk to Potter alone in the past few days. First of all, he had been given a long and irritating roasting by the Head Girl. The reprimand had gone on for hours, since she had chased him tirelessly from class to class, until he finally had to go back to his Common Room where she couldn't reach him. Some of his fellow Slytherins had told him that she was waiting for him outside the entrance – and that she was looking particularly aggravated – but Scorpius decided to skip dinner that evening rather than have to hear her scolding him over and over again.

Then, his parents had arrived, his mother had been red-faced for the whole time that they had sat in the Headmistress office, while his father had looked much paler than Scorpius could ever remember seeing him. They had barely glanced at him; throughout Professor McGonagall's speech they had kept their eyes on her, nodding and agreeing with every word she said.

Another month of detention was simply the thing he deserved. They just hoped that he understood. Even if now he was of age that didn't meant that he could go and spend the night away from the school without telling his parents or his professors.

Scorpius barely registered the words. He sat there, thinking about what was coming once Professor McGonagall had finished her speech and once she had left the room, wanting to let them talk to Scorpius in private. And when the door closed behind her back, Scorpius gritted his teeth in preparation.

His father had known straight away where he had been. What he had done – or what he thought he had done – and with whom. He had asked him how he had managed to get the money that time, but laughed at him when Scorpius replied that he had stolen it. His mother hadn't said anything at all. She had just looked at him as if she wished to have never had children. He couldn't help thinking what she would have said when he brought Scarlet home to hide her at the Manor. Yes, because now, in his head, that was what was going to happen. _To hell with giving her back to her family_. He would have scheduled another appointment with her, he would have gone there and taken her home with him.

_How_?

Well, as soon as Albus Severus Potter was done talking to Professor Longbottom, he would have known just that. Potter had something he needed. Something that he knew it would have helped him to secretly take Scarlet from that place.

_Potter had the Cloak_.

"Potter," Scorpius called him when he saw that he was finally starting to retrieve his books from the long, wooden table and preparing to leave. "Can I talk to you?" He tried to keep his voice even, but couldn't hide a slight edginess that cut through his throat.

Potter looked at him for a long moment, his green eyes almost scrutinising his face, before he returned his attention to his belongings. "The answer is _I don't know_," he said nonchalantly.

Scorpius furrowed his brow as the Gryffindor walked past him and out of the greenhouse. "You don't know if I can talk to you?" he asked confused, but following him.

"No," replied Potter, not even looking at him now. "I don't know why I didn't report you to Professor McGonagall." He stopped and narrowed his eyes as he finally turned his attention to him. "Isn't that what you were going to ask me?"

"Yes," he replied, "no… I mean… not just that."

Potter raised his chin. "Then what is it?"

"I…" Scorpius looked around himself, Professor Longbottom was curiously looking at them from the door of Greenhouse number two, while on the other side of the meadow, the Hufflepuff team seemed to be on its way to the Quidditch pitch for practise. "Can I talk to you in private?"

Potter rolled his eyes. "There's nobody here, Malfoy."

Scorpius bit his bottom lip. He was pretty sure that Potter's initial reaction would have been of scorn. He surely would have laughed at him or yelled that he was mental. He couldn't have let him do that in front of a group of nosy Hufflepuffs or an even nosier professor. "Right," he grumbled, "let's just… walk that way, then."

He started walking towards the longest and less travelled path that brought back to the castle. At least, if Potter wanted to scream or laugh at him, nobody would have heard him and wondered why.

"Malfoy," said Potter, walking closely behind him, "just ask me what you have to ask me, I need to finish my essay for D.A.D.A. for tomorrow."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and turned to face him. He knew he was going to snigger at him. He just knew it. Nonetheless, he took a deep breath and said, "I need you to lend me your cloak."

It took Potter slightly more than Scorpius had anticipated. He first looked at him as if he was about to laugh, but instead he only snorted lightly, then he narrowed his eyes, maybe waiting for him to say that he was joking, and when that didn't happen he finally gaped at him as if he was crazy. "Are you having me on?" he finally asked, sounding vaguely amused.

Scorpius looked at him gravely and shook his head. "No."

In the end, Potter did laugh out loud and Scorpius glowered at the fact that probably even those Hufflepuffs were hearing him down at the Quidditch pitch. "I'm serious," he grunted.

"Oh," snorted Potter, "you are serious, aren't you?" He shook his head. "Then, by all means, let me go and fetch it for you, Malfoy! What do you need it for, if I may ask? Oh, wait, is it to sneak off of the castle at night? Of course, it is, isn't it? Well, do you need anything else? Maybe the Marauder's Map, so that you can dodge my cousin on your way out?"

Scorpius darkened. "I don't need a cloak to sneak out of the school," he replied haughtily.

"No, apparently, not," snorted Potter. "Then what do you need it for?"

Scorpius looked away. Why did he have to be that curious? Couldn't he just give him the bloody cloak? He would have returned it, what did Potter think? Bloody hell! Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was no thief! Of course, he was also not the fairest person when it was up to Quidditch or other silly matters, but this was no silly matter either. This was serious. This was about a human being. This was about a beautiful girl being kept prisoner by an evil wizard… just like Viridina in the tower. Yes, suddenly, Scorpius understood why Scarlet liked Viridina that much.

Scorpius bit his bottom lip as he stared at the Forbidden Forest. _Could he tell him?_ Maybe he should have… she was his sister after all… but then he would have hexed him and called his father before Scorpius even managed to get to the end of his confession and then… _Then nobody would have saved Scarlet at all_.

No, not Scarlet. _Lily_.

"I can't tell you," he replied sourly. He looked back at him, gritting his teeth. "But I swear that I will give it back and that… I… I need it for something good…"

Potter narrowed his eyes. "Something good like what?"

"I can't tell you," repeated Scorpius, "I just need it…" He set his jaw, he was about to add a 'please' and that was definitely not good, _Malfoys didn't plead_. Had he involuntarily begged him for the cloak, though, he would have told himself that it was all for Scarlet. _Lily._

"You are out of your mind," Potter let him know, smiling cheerfully and finally walking away.

"Potter…" Scorpius called after him. "I… I need it…"

The dark haired boy didn't even turn. "Yeah, in your dreams, Malfoy." Then he stopped and finally turned to look at him. "You could at least tell me why you need it, you know," he replied, "I am quite curious to know what's wrong with you, really." He walked away then, leaving Scorpius there to look at him as he became smaller and smaller and finally turned behind a wall of the castle and disappeared from his sight.

Scorpius let out a frustrated growl and kicked a rock down the slope.

He needed to find a way to that cloak, he needed it to sneak into Nott & Goyle and steal Nott's treasure.

He needed it to get Lily out of there.

ooo

There was a knock on the door, a mighty knock that had the power to shake the wood off its hinges and make Nott roll his eyes.

"Come in, Goyle," he said gruffly, not looking up from the contract he was revising.

Goyle opened the door and walked inside with graceless steps. "Nott," he grunted, "the girls say Scarlet is _not_ _available_."

Nott rolled his eyes again and smirked. "The girls are surprisingly telling the truth, Goyle," he snorted. He looked at him and cocked his head. "The Healer that you just found for us is with her right at this very moment."

Goyle pressed his lips together, almost pouting. "A routine visit?" he asked casually. "Then can I see her?"

"It's not a routine visit," replied Goyle. "She needed… some _healing_."

Goyle rolled his eyes as he collapsed heavily on a chair. "What happened?" he asked visibly altered to be there and not have access to his favourite girl.

As he looked at him attentively, Nott leaned back on his chair, his fingers tapping his chin lightly. "She has been in the playroom for four days," he replied with a soft smirk on his lips.

Goyle took a deep breath and snorted. "What did she do?"

"She tried to kill Ebony."

Goyle rolled his eyes. "Seriously," he replied hotly, "what did she do?"

"Seriously, she tried to kill Ebony."

Goyle's face painted with surprise first and then incredulity. "What?" he asked, his jaw dropping. "She… _what_? On… on purpose?"

"Oh Merlin," smirked Nott. "Oh no! She was scared out of her wits. She was soaking my trousers with her tears while the girls were telling me what had happened. Kept saying she didn't do it intentionally. Didn't even know what she was doing, apparently…"

"What happened?" asked Goyle, his face now finally worried. "Did she…"

Nott nodded. "She did indeed," he replied. "_Magic_. Accidental, Wandless magic." He closed the contract in front of him and corked the ink bottle. "That's why she was in the playroom, really. I couldn't care less about Ebony, but I certainly can't tolerate Scarlet's behaviour."

"Well, what happened?" asked Goyle impatiently.

Nott glared at him before replying, "Apparently the girls were having a bit of fun, when out of the blue, she Summoned a towel and tried to strangle Ebony," he replied curtly.

Goyle rolled his eyes. "Had those nitwits tried the Counter Spell," he asked, and Nott was surprised to hear something intelligent coming from him.

"Yes," he replied slowly, "they said it didn't work."

"Why didn't they Stun Scarlet, then?" he asked impatiently.

"Because they are not allowed," thundered Nott, "they can't use spells or anything that leaves marks on her." He darkened. They had left marks on her, Ebony and Lulu's nails had been well imprinted on her skin until the Healer had healed the cuts.

Goyle's lips curled into a smirk. "Only you," he pointed out.

"Only me," he replied, nodding. He darkened even more and started to put away the contract and the ink and the quill with jerky movements.

"You look tense, Nott," said Goyle.

"And you look almost intelligent today, Goyle," he grunted, before shaking his head and finally admitting, "I'm slightly concerned."

"About Scarlet?"

Nott nodded. "First the Malfoy boy, and now this," he said, "I'm afraid my dear Scarlet is trying to slip away from me."

Goyle snorted at that. "A hard task for someone who is kept under more strict surveillance than a prisoner in Azkaban."

Nott looked at him for a long moment, considering his words carefully. Goyle was right after all. Weirdly enough, he was right. Nott didn't know what he was worried about. Scarlet was his and only his, she was in his power and nobody, not the young son of his former schoolmate nor the powerful magic she had inherited from her parents would ever take her away from him.

Nott smirked.

Yes.

Scarlet was not going anywhere.

ooo

Scorpius stared at the curtains around his bed almost with hatred. Oh! How he wished he could cut them, fashion them into a cloak and use it to sneak Scarlet out of the brothel.

But he couldn't.

It would just be a cloak, everybody would have seen her leaving, and nobody would have let her leave at all.

No.

There was nothing.

_Nothing_. Nothing he could have used. Nothing he could have done. Nothing he could have planned. Nothing. Nothing. _Nothing_.

Except for the Invisibility Cloak.

Except for Albus Severus Potter's Invisibility Cloak.

He needed that _cloak_.

Scorpius had thought about bribing a Gryffindor into telling him the password to their Common Room. But then he didn't have a clue how to go get the Cloak from Potter's trunk – or from wherever he kept it, honestly, he didn't even know that piece of information – without being seen and sent to the Headmistress once again.

He had thought about ambushing Potter during one of his patrols, but truth was that the Gryffindor almost never had his Cloak with him. He used it very rarely, and he couldn't see him using it any time soon. Especially not now that Scorpius had told him about the fact that he needed it.

And then, once again, Scorpius had thought about telling Potter the reason why he needed that Cloak. But then, he had wondered what would have happened if the Gryffindor called the Aurors… he would have put Lily's life in danger and without even knowing it. But then again, Scorpius had contemplated the possibility of casting a minuscule Memory Charm on the Gryffindor Prefect to prevent him from doing something so reckless…

But above all, Scorpius had come to the conclusion that telling Potter was the best chance – if not the only one – he had to save Lily's life.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Notes:** The first scene in this chapter was prompted by hashi's comment to the last chapter. What does this mean? It means that this scene was not there until the other day. I hadn't planned to write any Albus/James/Teddy remembering scenes, but she asked for one and I thought, why the heck not? Well, dear hashi, I couldn't have a scene with the three of them altogether. First of all, Al is at Hogwarts and James and Teddy are not, plus Al already had his little stroll down memory lane when he remembered about Lily at Christmas. So, I decided to go with James. I might or might not write a Teddy scene in the upcoming chapter, but I don't promise anything. So guys, if this scene makes you cry it's not my fault! Also, if you think it was a good idea, it's not me who you have to thank for that.

Dear Sam, thank you for offering to beta this fan-fiction. Yes, I do believe that this story is certainly in need of a beta-reader, but right now I'd rather keep the freedom to upload it all without having to wait for a beta (even though, holy crap! You read 18 hours a day, you certainly are quick!). But I like to change things until a few seconds before I actually upload a new chapter and if I had a beta I would feel obliged to always get back to him/her for confirmation on even the smallest changes, and therefore I would most certainly miss the Wednesday and Saturday uploads. I also CAN'T upload it all already! Who's going to feed my ego then if I don't get my weekly fix of lovely reviews...? :D I wanted to thank you for your reviews, though and let you know here - since you are a guest reviewer - why a Portkey wouldn't work in this particularly situation (by the way, the 'discreet owl' made me giggle and I don't even know why!). If you remember from the books, there are two kind of Portkeys: one that is triggered by touch (like Harry and Cedric and the cup) and one that is set to work at a specific time. They definitely work inside of Hogwarts, so they would definitely work in the brothel as well. The problem here is that they cannot communicate with Lily and tell her where to be at the exact time and place where the Portkey will activate. She is under strict surveillance, she works for some hours of the night and then sleeps with Nott, she is with the girls during the afternoon in the bathroom and she is with Taffy the rest of the time. If they activated a Portkey to the brothel without telling her they might just as well go through the main door because they could then arrive in any room with any person inside (maybe Nott or Goyle or those spiteful girls) and they would just be busted anyway. But all this is mute because a Portkey would definitely work with anybody, except with Scarlet... ;)

Urgh, sorry for the river of words! Enjoy the chapter now, dearies!

PS-Hehe! I was almost forgetting to upload this! Oooops!

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

James stopped in front of Lily's door.

The shin guards he had just retrieved from his old room were pushed tight under his arm. He was going to play Quidditch with his fellow Auror trainees that upcoming Saturday. He hadn't played in a while, but luckily his skills as a Chaser had not suddenly vanished ever since the Gryffindor team had won the Quidditch House Cup the past May; because that was the last time he had played, almost nine months before.

Right at that moment though, Quidditch was the last thing on his mind.

There had been a loud thump coming from Lily's room. A noise of something falling to the floor. Nothing that seemed to have broken, really, but something had fallen and he felt the urge to put it back right before his mother noticed.

He took a step towards the door and placed his hand on the cold handle.

He hadn't entered Lily's room in six years. Ever since she had disappeared, and he didn't think that Albus or Teddy had either. Nor his father.

He knew that his mother went in there every day, though. She tidied up – what he didn't know –, she changed the sheets, she cleaned… she prepared the room for her daughter's return.

Nobody had the heart to tell her to stop.

James felt his heart in his throat as he pushed the door open.

Lily's room was dark in the light of the sunset, but through the pale orange rays of the last sun he could see her toys neatly piled in a chest in a corner and her toy broomstick against the wall. Near it, a wood bookend in the shape of a cat had fallen to the floor and her books had toppled over on her shelf. He knelt to pick it up and pushed the volumes back up and together, securing them with the bookend once again. He swallowed and felt a shiver creeping down his spine. The curtains around her bed fluttered slightly as a breeze came from her half-opened window.

It was cold in there.

He crossed the room quickly to push down the single hung window that his mother had forgotten to close and lock it in place. He looked out of the window for a moment, staring at the first, shy leaves trying to sprout from the bare branches of the trees in the garden of Grimmauld Place. He had helped Lily up one of lowest branches once, and his mother had shrieked and paled as she eased her down with her wand, but Lily had just giggled for the whole afternoon and thanked him and hugged him.

His mother had given him a roasting, but it had been worth it.

He shook his head to send the memories away and turned towards the door.

"_James! What are you doing in my room? Get out! I'm going to call Mum if you don't get out now." _

James' breath caught in his throat as a pale as ghost, nine-year-old Lily stared at him from her desk, and then, in the blink of an eye, she disappeared before he could even register that she had been there in the first place.

_But she hadn't been there_.

He brought the heel of his hand to his forehead and pushed slightly against his skull. He was an Auror, for crying out loud, he shouldn't have been that impressionable!

Lily was not there.

Lily hadn't been there for the past six years.

Lily was probably never going to be there ever again.

ooo

Scorpius was waiting. _Again_.

His latest two-month-detention – somehow, from a day to the other, the time of his punishment had just doubled, he suspected his parents were involved in that decision – was not to be carried out in the same way as the first one. Professor McGonagall had been suggested by his father – once he had understood that Scorpius wasn't having a laugh when he had told him that he had stolen the money – that he was sent to the Forbidden Forest or to help some Professor doing something useful, and not put back into the Trophy Room where he would have had access to more valuables.

_It didn't matter_.

He would have found a way to the money once again. To another five hundred Galleons. All he needed now was Albus Severus Potter and his cloak. Because that was what he had been repeating to himself over and over again: the cloak was the only way to her. To Scarlet. To Lily. To whoever she was.

So Scorpius was waiting.

He was waiting outside the Trophy Room, because he needed to show Potter the picture in case he refused to help him. He needed him to know, he needed him to _see_. Potter wouldn't refuse him if he knew what Scorpius knew.

Scorpius was aware that if Albus Potter was anything like his father, he would have looked at him horrified at the idea that he had been to a brothel and to see a prostitute. He would have thought him a disgusting human being. And even though Scorpius had never touched Scarlet in that way, he couldn't have helped agreeing with him.

But was that really important? After all, Scorpius didn't care what Potter thought about him. He had never cared, so why would he start now? Well, of course, _now_ he was Lily's sister… And Scorpius had feelings for Lily and… it was a weird sensation, but he wanted her brother at least not to find him disgusting… They didn't need to be suddenly friends, but it would have been nice if he didn't looked revolted at him …

But if he had to tell Potter what he knew and what he had done and where he had been to convince him to help him, he would have done just that. To hell with keeping up appearances! And Potter would have helped him. And if not, Scorpius had his wand… he had spent days reading about Memory Charms. He was going to do it…

But somehow, he was sure that the Gryffindor would have helped him… And then… _Potter would have taken Lily home_. Her home. Yes. The idea to have her at the Manor and hide her for the rest of her life was stupid. He understood that now. That was not the life he wanted for her. She needed to be free, not to be confined again in yet another cold place where people were unable to love.

Scorpius sighed.

He knew that everything would have been much easier if he just wrote to the Ministry. But he couldn't have alerted the Aurors to go and get her. Nott… he was… evil and _crazy_. What if he used Lily as a shield to flee from that place while it was surrounded by Aurors? Or what if he really killed her as he had promised because he didn't want Potter's father to have her back?

No, Scorpius had to act alone. With Potter's help in the form of his Invisibility Cloak. If Potter believed him enough to lend him his cloak, of course.

But surely… His father said that Potter's father had that thing… he had called it a 'saving thing', he couldn't stay away from helping people, surely Albus Potter was just like him… Potter was going to believe him… he was going to help him…

Scorpius swallowed. Potter was probably going to tag along…

Voices echoed through the corridor and snapped Scorpius out of his musings. He held his breath and listened. It looked like Hugo Weasley and Jenny Wood had taken over the nine o'clock patrol, and Scorpius managed to slip through the ajar door of the Trophy Room and hide in the darkness behind one of the cupboards as soon as he heard the voices of the two fifth years getting near.

For a moment, he wondered who had Potter been paired up with, then he remembered that Zabini had told him that they hadn't gotten a new seventh year Prefect for Slytherin. He hoped the son of the Saviour of the World had not been paired up with anybody at all.

And as he hid until Weasley and Wood walked past, Scorpius kept waiting.

ooo

"Al."

Albus rolled his eyes. Was it bad that sometimes he agreed with Scorpius Malfoy about his cousin?

"Al."

"I heard you the first time, Rose," he said flatly, closing the book in his lap.

"You didn't reply," she pointed out, hands on her hips. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No," he said calmly, "I only have to walk around the school and make sure that nobody is out of bed, I hardly think I need your assistance, but thank you for asking."

She nodded. "You should go now, you know," she pointed out again, "actually, you should have gone three minutes ago."

"Rose," he said, looking at her intently, "you are a control freak, you know, Malfoy is actually right sometimes…"

"Don't mention that name in front of me!" she almost screeched.

Albus rolled his eyes as he stood up. "I'm going to patrol," he announced dryly, walking towards the Portrait Hole.

"Good, and remember that if you—"

Luckily, the Portrait of the Fat Lady swung close and Rose's voice was swallowed by the silence of the corridor. Albus took a deep breath and started to walk. He had patrolled alone for the past few days and he had never met anybody. It was just a walk, really, that was what he had told himself. He almost welcomed it when Rose was nagging him as annoyingly as that night. He loved Rose dearly, like a sister – like he had loved Lily. _No, like he loved Lily_ – but sometimes she was really good at getting on his nerves.

He shook his head and walked a bit more briskly, trying to make his patrol the shortest possible. He still had to practise some spells for Charms and it was late already, and he didn't want to go to bed too late, when he did he always overslept the following morning. He didn't know how Rose did it, but she was always the last one to go to bed, and the first one up in the morning. In the whole school, he suspected. Maybe only Zabini was up as early as she was, but for different reasons.

Well, Rose was definitely her mother's daughter from what his father had told him about Aunt Hermione's days as a Prefect.

Albus raised his wand and muttered, "_Lumos_," as he turned into a particularly dark corridor. He walked past the snoring portraits of some grumpy-looking wizards and ignored a hiss coming from Mrs Norris who was crouching in a corner. "I'm a Prefect, you stupid cat," he hissed back, walking past her.

He kept strolling through the castle and he didn't know for how long he had done just that when he turned a sharp corner and stopped in his tracks as he found himself gaping at the pale figure of Rose's nemesis.

Scorpius Malfoy.

The seventh year, de-Prefected Slytherin was staring back at him with a severe frown creasing his forehead and his lips pressed together in a thin line.

"Potter," he said gravely.

"Bloody hell," Albus muttered in reply, walking quickly to get to where the blond boy was standing. "What the hell are you doing out of bed at this time, Malfoy?" He nodded towards his chest and added, "Have you noticed that you are not a Prefect anymore?"

"I need to talk to you," he said firmly.

Albus rolled his eyes. "Again?" he groaned.

"Yes," he replied, "I need your cloak."

Albus snorted. "Malfoy," he said patiently, "we are not friends. Can you remember that?"

Malfoy nodded and suddenly he looked much less resolute than before. "I'll tell you why I need it," he whispered, his expression somehow seemed almost pained, as if he didn't want to tell him at all, but felt like he had no choice.

Albus looked at him in disbelief. Did he really think that he would have given him his cloak? Even if he told him for what mischief he needed it? Malfoy must have been out of his freaking mind. "I don't even care anymore," replied Albus nonchalantly, "just go back to the Slytherin Common Room before I start taking away points." He walked past him, shaking his head emphatically and he could almost hear him groan in reply.

"It's for a girl, Potter," Malfoy called after him, his voice uneasy.

Albus stopped and turned to look at him as if he were crazy. "Take her to Madam Puddifoot's, then, you nitwit," he pointed out, before turning again.

"I can't," he murmured. "Potter… _please_…"

Albus stopped again, eyes wide as he stared in front of him into the darkness of the corridor. Did Malfoy just… _plead_? With him? Did Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy just plead with him, Albus Severus Potter? What was wrong? What was wrong with Malfoy? Albus turned to look at him and saw that the Slytherin boy was gnawing on his bottom lip and staring back at him, his eyes seemed truly worried now.

"What…" Albus' words died in his throat as they heard Filch's raspy voice talking to his stupid cat. If Albus was a Prefect and could be there, Malfoy certainly couldn't. He hurried towards the first door and pushed it open. "Get in, hurry," he whispered harshly to Malfoy.

He walked inside and heard the blond boy following him in, the door closed softly at their backs and as Albus lit his wand again he saw that they were standing in the Trophy Room. Well, surely Malfoy liked that place a lot if he was always hanging around it even now that his detention had changed. The Forbidden Forest, wasn't it? But he hadn't started, yet, had he? Otherwise he wouldn't be there…

"Okay," whispered Albus, turning to light up Malfoy's face with his wand, "why can't you take her to Madam Puddifoot's?" He didn't like that place at all, but that was where all the boys took their girlfriends for their first date ever since… Well, his father had taken his girlfriend there back in the days. Not his mother, no – their first date must have been at the Quidditch pitch or something like that – but that Cho Chang woman Uncle Ron had told him about.

Malfoy gaped at him as if he was going to be sick any moment now and Albus couldn't really imagine why. It was just a question and _he_ had started it, and even if the two of them never talked about girls – or about anything at all, really – _he_ had started it. Honestly! Albus stared as Malfoy swallowed noisily and finally replied, "She's a prostitute."

Albus' lips parted in surprise, but he recovered quickly and soon he pressed them back together into a thin, severe line. That was too absurd to be real. "Are you kidding me?" he asked coldly. The Slytherin was surely having him on.

Malfoy shook his head, looking positively green now. "No," he whispered weakly.

Albus swallowed. That was… _unexpected_, even for Malfoy. "Are you out of your sodding mind?" he hissed. "Are you asking me my father's cloak to sneak out of the school and to go see a prostitute?" Something hit him right then. "Is that where you've been going all these nights? To see a whore? And to think that I didn't report you!" He looked at him aghast. "You are absolutely disgusting, Malfoy." He shook his head and walked past him and towards the door, unable to stand his presence.

Malfoy's hand was quick to clutch his wrist though. "No," he said, his voice tight, "you don't understand, Potter…"

Albus jerked his arm away from him. "Oh, I think I do," he snapped, "you pay to screw a woman. You disgust me."

"I've never even touched her," he whispered urgently, "I swear."

Albus laughed at him. "Yes, right," he replied, "you talk to her, I imagine. Or do you play Wizard's Chess?"

Malfoy lowered his eyes, his teeth imprinting dents in his lips. "I talk to her," he admitted, "I… I…" He looked up again, his eyes seemed to silently implore him. "Potter, I need your cloak."

"I was given the understanding that you could make your way to her without the aid of my cloak," snapped Albus, feeling revolted at the very thought that he was asking his father's cloak to be used for such a purpose.

"You don't understand," he said urgently, "I need it for her…" He took a deep breath and added quickly, "She's held captive in a brothel, Potter."

Albus crossed his arms. "Now I know you've lost your marbles," he snorted. "There are no brothels in England, my father closed them all."

Malfoy shook his head frantically. "There's one," he whispered, "it's a secret. It's in London… she… I need your cloak to take her out of there."

Albus looked at him, unable to move, speak or breath. He was talking nonsense. There were no brothels. His father had closed them all. The summer before he started at Hogwarts. The summer before Lily was taken. He remembered it like it was the day before. A huge operation, his father had been interviewed so many times. His face had been on the Prophet every single day.

"You… you are talking nonsense," he said to Malfoy, shaking his head furiously. "Nonsense…"

"I'm not," Malfoy almost snapped, "I can tell you everything. She's fifteen, she's… she's been there for six years, she's been tortured, forced to work as a prostitute, to sell her body… she's… she's the most…"

"The most?" asked Albus, his voice a murmur. He felt dazed by that load of information about this mysterious girl. But Malfoy was talking rubbish. He was _passionately_ talking nonsense about something that could not have been.

"She's beautiful," whispered Malfoy, lowering his eyes and blushing slightly.

Albus looked at him with his eyes wide. What was he saying? That was ridiculous. That was crazy. _That was not possible_. There were no brothels. And an underage prostitute, if there was someone like her he had to alert the Ministry not telling him. "You're out of your mind."

"There's another thing," said Malfoy urgently, he spun on his heels and went towards a cupboard, he opened it hastily and took out the same frame that he had been looking at every single night that Albus had come to pick him up for patrol. He turned it towards him and held it in front of his eyes. "She…" he whispered, swallowing and pointing to a certain player, "she looks like this."

Albus felt his rage boil in his veins. He gritted his teeth and brought his hands to Malfoy's neck pushing him back with all his forces against the wall behind him. "What the hell is your problem, Malfoy?" he almost yelled, uncaring about Filch or his damn cat. "I told you that's my mother."

To his surprise Malfoy didn't try to fight him back. He nodded frantically. "I know," he murmured throatily.

Albus gritted his teeth. "So what are you saying?" he snapped, dunking his fingers in his skin. "That there's a prostitute who looks like my mother?"

Malfoy nodded and Albus looked at him in horror. "She looks exactly like her," he gasped as Albus involuntarily squeezed his fingers with rage around his throat. "Think about it, Potter, she is fifteen… she's been there for six years…"

Albus felt his breathing increasing. What was he saying? She looked like his mother, she was fifteen, six years… no, that was not… that couldn't be…

He let him go and stepped back and Malfoy brought his hands to his neck, coughing slightly.

Albus shook his head, his lips parted, his eyes wide as he tried to make sense of those words. "No…" he said, "what are you saying?" He looked at him and gritted his teeth. "What the hell are you saying, Malfoy?" he yelled.

Malfoy swallowed and nodded. "I think she's your sister."

For a moment, Albus felt as if all the air had been knocked out of his lungs. "No," he gasped, shaking his head. "They've been looking for her everywhere… no… she's… no…"

Malfoy nodded again. "She _is_ your sister," he whispered, "they took away her memory, and kept her as a prisoner for six years, but… it's her…"

"How do you know? How can you be sure?" he almost whined. After all Scorpius hadn't known Lily. He didn't know what she had looked like, he didn't know anything about her.

"I know," said Malfoy firmly, "everything… everything fits. Your father closed Nott's whorehouses and he took her away as… I think she was… something like his personal revenge. He had taken away her memory, she remembers only from when she was nine years old. From September." He lowered his eyes on the picture and added, "She looks so much like your mother, but she is so different… She is so…" He shook his head. "I can't even describe her."

Albus felt his stomach churn. "Lily…" he breathed. A prostitute. A prisoner. In a brothel. No… that… didn't make… didn't make sense… it… It didn't… it did… _it did make sense_… Why they'd never found her… Why she had disappeared without trace… Why nobody knew anything… why… why…

Malfoy nodded. "They call her Scarlet now," he said softly.

Albus looked at him as if he saw him for the first time. "We need… we need to alert the Aurors," he said, walking towards the door as if in a daze, "we need to Floo my father…"

"No!" Malfoy almost screamed. "No, Potter, please…"

Albus looked at him as if he were out of his mind.

"We need to take her out of there first," he murmured, "I… I need your cloak… I need to take her out of there…" He swallowed. "If Nott knows that Aurors are coming he will… He will kill her… he told me…"

_Kill her_, the words echoed in Albus' head and sunk painfully in his brain.

"I need your cloak, Potter, please…"

Albus looked at him for a long moment, too dazed to reply.

_Bloody hell._

"Yes," he finally said, nodding forcefully, "okay. You can take my cloak."

Malfoy seemed to let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Potter, I… thank—"

"But I'm coming with you."

The Slytherin's grateful face fell, and now he looked positively green once again, but it seemed to last only for a spare second before he recovered as if Malfoy had somehow expected Albus to propose just that. He furrowed his brow and stretched his hand towards him. "Deal," he murmured.

Albus shook it without even noticing. "Deal," he murmured back, before gritting his teeth. "Now, tell me everything."

Malfoy looked seriously into his eyes and nodded.

And he told him everything.

And Albus could feel a little bit of his heart being carved out of his chest with every one of Malfoy's words.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Notes:** I'm not too happy how this chapter turned out. You can go right ahead and let me know exactly what you think about it. I won't cry... too much... :P It's like a very fast paced collection of scenes, and the last scene could have been moved to the beginning of next chapter, but I wanted to give you a little cliffy... Muha ha ha. I added a Teddy scene. I don't know, it's different from James' and Albus' and it's not even in his perspective. Oh well! The upcoming chapters will be filled with action! And... Hahaha! I wanted to edit this a bit more, but my cousin asked me to go to her house and have Nutella on bread and well... I just couldn't refuse, now could I? Hehe!

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

"Five hundred Galleons?" growled Potter. "That's mental."

"That's what she's worth," replied Scorpius darkly. "One hour for five hundred Galleons."

Potter seemed to pale, just like he had done quite a bit of times ever since Scorpius had told him about Scarlet. But the Slytherin had to give credit to the Gryffindor, he was strong. In fact, Potter was stronger than he had expected him to be. Especially considering the situation.

Potter swallowed and his face darkened. "And you've been there four times?" he asked, his voice thick. "Are you really _that_ rich?"

Scorpius smirked in reply. "Of course I am," he replied casually, "but I had to steal some stuff from the Trophy Room to cover that sum of money last time I went to her." He picked up a big rock from the ground and threw it in the lake. "My father doesn't want me to go there anymore," he added, before Potter could comment on the theft.

"Does he know…"

Scorpius shook his head. "He thinks I go back to… _you know_," he murmured, flushing. Luckily, he didn't have to spell it out for Potter because the Gryffindor nodded in understanding. "My father doesn't know who she really is."

"Damn it, Malfoy," growled Potter hotly, "we need to find the money." He picked up a rock as well and threw it into the water with a grunt of frustration. "Quickly."

Scorpius nodded, staring in front of himself while the surface of the lake wavered gently as the Giant Squid swam near the shore, probably disturbed by the stones they sent its way. Its tentacles came up lazily and rolled over the water in a gentle movement as if they were dancing.

"Malfoy," whispered Potter all of a sudden, "how is she?"

Scorpius turned to look at him, but Potter was stubbornly staring in front of him.

"I mean… just… I don't even know…" he said softly, shaking his head.

Scorpius swallowed as he looked away. He had told him that he couldn't describe her. It was true. Potter was her brother, he couldn't tell him how much he wanted to kiss her or to wrap his arms around her, or how beautiful and perfect she was. He certainly couldn't tell him that he had seen her naked, even if it had been only for a fistful of seconds. But maybe he could tell him something else… "She's sweet," he finally murmured, "and… I don't know, Potter, she's just… she's a bit like a child…" And it was true and now that he thought about that, he felt even more disgusted at the thought that someone as gentle and child-like as her was used for pleasuring sick, old men. "She likes to read," he added, trying to smile a little, "a lot. She likes… she likes a book about Viridina the witch, she… she read it twenty-four times and—_what_?"

Scorpius had turned to look at Potter and just then noticed that he was gaping back at him.

"You…" he murmured. "You were buying a book about that witch… Rose told me."

Scorpius flushed and looked away. "I know," he said darkly, "it was for her." He gripped a spare blade of grass and tore it with force. "I couldn't give it to her," he murmured, "I gave her my copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ and Nott burnt it."

Potter looked away and Scorpius could almost hear his teeth gritting with rage. "You'll have to testify, you know," he said, his voice dry and filled with anger, "once we manage to get her out of there."

Scorpius nodded curtly.

He didn't want to do it.

He wanted to send Nott to rot in Azkaban, of that he was sure, but he was also sure that they didn't need his testimony to do it. And he didn't want to give it. His name was in their registry. He was imputable of sleeping with a minor and encouraging prostitution. The only way out of it was for Scarlet to tell them that they had never had sex. But what if they asked her and she replied that they had, just because he was her handsome knight and that was what Viridina and her handsome knight did in the book?

"Can we go through the plan?" asked Potter nervously, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Just one last time."

Scorpius sighed. "We book an appointment," he said, "we Apparate to London, I walk in there with you under the cloak. We wait for her and then we wait until the hour is almost over to take her out of there, under the cloak with you." He swallowed and added, "Then we go to the Ministry straight away."

Potter nodded. "It seems so easy," he whispered.

"I don't know," replied Scorpius quietly. His heart was already racing in his chest at the thought that he would have had to look exceptionally calm while they smuggled Scarlet out of the brothel under the Invisibility Cloak. "Have you checked that the cloak is long enough for two people?"

He nodded. "You said she's this tall," he told him, touching his own shoulder. "That's a bit less than Rose, I've tried it with her last night, Hugo couldn't see anything."

"You didn't tell them, did you?" asked Scorpius alarmed. "I told you not to tell anybody."

"I didn't, Malfoy," replied Potter snappishly. "Calm down. I told them that I wanted to sneak off to the Astronomy Tower with Sarah Peterson and needed to see if Filch could see us at all. Rose was fuming, but I told her that at least I haven't been de-Prefected like someone else's…"

Scorpius looked away, darkening. "Sarah Peterson is ugly," he replied haughtily, "you should have said… I don't know, Lydia McKinnon."

Potter shook his head as he threw another rock into the lake. "Are we really arguing over this?" he asked flatly. "We need to find a way to get five hundred Galleons."

"Isn't your family kind of wealthy too, Potter?" he asked nonchalantly. He was pretty sure that the Weasleys weren't particularly rich, but the Potters had been fabled to have a good-size house and a lot of money at Gringotts. His father was Head Auror, after all, and his mother was a former Quidditch star. They were famous, for crying out loud!

"Yes," replied Potter flatly, "and I was actually wondering if I should have opened the letter for my parents with the fact that we need the money for a brothel or if that went at the end, right before I asked them how Grandma was doing…"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Well, lie to them," he snapped, "do you know how to lie? Just tell them that you need the money… I don't know, because you want to buy something expensive for yourself, I do it all the time. Or because… you want to open a shop in Hogsmeade, or you want to invest it somewhere… or…"

"Blimey!" muttered Potter, turning to look at him. "A shop in Hogsmeade!"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "It was just an idea, you think of something if you are so—"

"No!" he cut him off. "I meant, a shop in Hogsmeade! Zonko's! My uncle!"

Scorpius furrowed his brow. "Do I have to put the words together and make a sentence?" he asked confused.

Potter didn't even look at him as he stood up and started pacing nervously near the shore of the lake. "We can ask him," he said, "he is rich. No, not my uncle… Fred! We need to ask Fred! Fred is managing the branch of the shop in Hogsmeade… We need to tell him… Tell him… tell him that we need the money, Fred will not refuse. Fred…" He turned to look at Scorpius and set his jaw. "We need to tell him about Lily," he told him dryly.

Scorpius shook his head furiously. "No!" he snapped, standing up as well. "No! Potter! I told you, that's… _no_! It's a classified mission. There! You want to be an Auror, this is your first secret mission, and you have to keep your mouth shut." He darkened and looked back at the lake. "Maybe we can take the money without telling him," he suggested, "if we manage to get Nott imprisoned your uncle will get it back at some point." He took a deep breath. "_When_ we manage to get him imprisoned," he corrected himself.

He was sure Potter was going to protest about that being unethical or stupid or something along the lines. To his surprise, instead, he seemed to really consider the idea. "I… I know where they keep the money," he stammered softly, "I guess… it would be like borrowing…"

"Without asking," pointed out Scorpius softly, eyeing him and waiting for his refusal.

It didn't come.

Instead, Potter nodded. "Yes, without asking… but I'm sure he'll be happy to know… afterwards… what we've used it for…" He lowered his eyes and bit his bottom lip. "I know my father will be happy… and my mother… she's been… I can't remember her ever being happy ever since that last day I saw her with Lily at King's Cross…"

Scorpius nodded curtly, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the sentimental turn the conversation had taken. "We should go then," he muttered. "The shops close at five, and today is a Hogsmeade weekend."

Potter looked at him gravely. "Yes," he replied, "let's go."

ooo

Albus had panicked.

"We need five hundred Galleons."

"What?" asked Fred, looking at him as if he was completely bonkers.

"What?" groaned Malfoy at his back.

Albus tried to smile, but all he could muster were his lips twitching up a little in nervousness. "We need five hundred Galleons," he repeated to his cousin.

Fred cocked an eyebrow as he shifted his eyes from Albus to Malfoy and back to him. "Yes," he replied, "sure. Let me just grab them for you." He crossed his arms and leaned the small of his back against the edge of the counter, unmoving.

"You are not going to grab them, are you?" asked Albus dejectedly.

Fred took a deep breath as he glanced askew at Malfoy once again before returning his eyes to Albus. "What have you gotten yourself into, Al? If you need help you know that—"

"_Stupefy._"

Albus groaned as he turned towards Malfoy, his wand was still pointed at Fred. "Malfoy!" he hissed.

Malfoy walked past him and towards the lying body. "I thought we were going to borrow the money without asking, Potter," he said, without looking at him.

"We can't…"

"Listen," he snapped, "if you'd seen her you wouldn't hesitate."

Albus swallowed. He was right. Malfoy was right, he had to mark the calendar because that was probably the first time in history that Malfoy was right about something. He had to do it for Lily. He would have gone back later and told Fred everything. After he had brought his sister home. Fred would have told him that it didn't even matter. Lily was worth much more than any sum of money.

"Right…" he murmured.

"Get the money, then," snapped Malfoy as he pointed his wand once again at Fred. Albus hurried to the till and pushed the red side button that opened a little, hidden drawer. There he found the key that opened the safe concealed under the trapdoor near the counter. He hoped fervently that they had five hundred Galleons in there. But surely they did. Albus and his fellow Prefects had confiscated so many items from that shop in the past few months, that surely Fred had much more than that there. He heard Malfoy muttering a Memory Charm and whispering a new memory to Fred – he had slipped and fallen on a Portable Swamp, he had hit his head, there had been nobody there when it had happened, he should have paid more attention, he was definitely as big an idiot as all the Weasleys were – while Albus opened the safe and started to count one Galleon after the other.

"Hurry, Potter," muttered Malfoy as he knelt next to him and started to grab the shiny Galleons in his hands, before he pocketed and stuffed them in his school bag without even counting. "We'll count them later."

Albus nodded and soon he was blindly grabbing fistful of coins just like Malfoy.

Before Fred could even stir, they were hurrying out of the shop and making their way back to the castle with their pockets and bags filled with money.

ooo

Two weeks later Scorpius found Potter in the library.

He sat down next to him, pushed the card he had just received via owl towards the Gryffindor and looked at him as he surveyed the words attentively.

The library was silent and mostly filled with fifth and seventh year students, studying for their upcoming exams.

Potter pushed the card back to him and nodded. "So it's done," he whispered, "tomorrow night."

Scorpius nodded. "Did your cousin notice that the money was missing?"

Potter nodded back. "Yes," he replied nervously, "he reported it to the Ministry. They are investigating."

"Right," Scorpius replied softly, trying hard not to show any nervousness himself. He stood up and pocketed the card. "Tomorrow night, Potter. I'll meet you in front of the Great Hall at nine."

Potter nodded back and, without adding a word, Scorpius stood up and walked away.

ooo

Scarlet hunched her back as she felt her father's lips brushing against her naked shoulder.

"Does your back still hurt?" he whispered against her shoulder blade. He slid an arm around her waist and pushed her against his chest, without waiting for her answer.

She swallowed. It still hurt, even though the Healer had managed to make all the signs of the whip disappear with some miraculous ointment that stunk horribly and stung her skin, the pain was still there. "Yes, Father," she replied softly, her fingers clutching at the pillow as he flattened his chest against her back, and his erection poked at her thigh.

He tightened his arms around her and kissed her neck. "I know," he said softly, "I asked him not to take away the pain this time." He brushed his fingers over a nipple and her muscles stiffened. "A little reminder of what you did, Scarlet."

She felt tears swell up in her eyes once again as her father reminded her for the umpteenth time of what she had done. "I didn't mean to," she sniffled. "I swear, Father, I didn't mean to…"

"I know," he replied softly, cupping her breast before he squeezed it until she whimpered. "But you did it, Scarlet." He let her flesh go and brought his hand up to cup her face, making her turn to look at him. "You almost killed Ebony."

Her bottom lip quivered slightly as he brushed away the tears. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

He made her turn on the bed and gently tugged one of her legs over his hip. "I know you are," he said, as he rolled on his back and brought his hands to her waist, bringing her on top of him.

She closed her eyes and balled her hands into fists as he entered her in one swift movement.

"Ride me," he ordered her and she could almost feel the small, satisfied smile in his voice the moment she obeyed him.

ooo

Teddy slid an arm around Victoire's shoulders and pulled her to him. He lowered his head and kissed her gently. "Hmm," he murmured, leaning back against the couch, "I can't believe you finally moved in…"

She giggled against his lips and tilted her head back a little. "Well, you gave me this beautiful ring," she told him, raising her hand, "I couldn't have refused not even if I wanted to…"

He grinned. "Yes, indeed, you agreed to marry me, Miss Weasley…"

"And I'm so glad I did…" she whispered, diving in for another kiss.

Teddy pulled her to him a bit more forcefully and she fell on his lap between giggles and laughter. "I can't believe your parents let you move in before we tied the knot, though," he admitted with a smile.

Victoire looked at him and grinned. "My mum wants a grandchild," she giggled.

Teddy shook his head and chuckled. "Oh man, already…?"

"Yes," grinned Victoire, her hand going to pat her tummy, "a little Teddy or a little Victoire to cart around…"

It was unexpected when Teddy's amused face darkened suddenly. "A little Teddy," he said gravely.

Victoire furrowed her brow slightly at the change in his tone. "Or a little Victoire," she repeated.

He shook his head firmly. "No, just a little Teddy."

She grinned and slapped his arm playfully. "Edward Remus Lupin! I didn't know you were such a sexist," she giggled, "I'm sure that you'd love to have a little girl, she'd be daddy's little princess and—"

"I don't want a girl, Victoire," he repeated firmly.

Victoire's lips parted in surprise as she raised her head to look more closely at her fiancé. "You're serious," she murmured.

He nodded and looked away. "Yes," he replied curtly, "I don't want a daughter who would disappear for Merlin knows what reason while she is visiting her grandparents."

Victoire's heart skipped a beat. "Teddy…" she murmured.

"And the Auror assigned to her case would never be able to find her, no matter how many leads he follows, how many times he tries."

"Teddy," repeated Victoire a bit more forcefully, her hand sneaking on the shaking cheek of her future husband.

"And then her parents will lose all hope," he continued, his voice a bit choked, "and her mother will just cry all the time and declare that her daughter is alive when everybody just thinks that she is dead… and I… I walk past Harry's office and hear him cry every time we think we've found her and instead… and I… I didn't even… I tried so hard to find her…"

Victoire raised her head and pressed her soft lips against his stubble-covered cheek. She wrapped her arms around his neck and felt Teddy hugging her back as he shook with tears. "It's not your fault," she whispered against his skin, "it's not your fault. It's not your fault."

She could feel him hiding his face in her hair. She could feel his hot tears against his neck. She could feel his strong arms trembling with grief and guilt and anger. "Victoire," he murmured thickly, "don't let me go…"

"Never, Teddy, never…"

ooo

Hugo walked back into the Common Room and furrowed his brow. Rose was there, which was not surprising, but she wasn't studying, which was extremely shocking. She was sitting on the couch and was staring into the fire, her knees to her chest and her leather-covered diary next to her.

"How is it that you are not studying?" he asked her as he came to stand next to the couch, a smile stretching his lips. "Are you sure you're my sister?"

She looked up at him, brown eyes as big as Galleons, lips parted in surprise as if he had somehow startled her. "Hugo," she said softly.

Hugo frowned as he sat down next to her. "Are you okay, Rose?" he asked, staring at her fire-lit up face.

She nodded. "Hugo," she whispered, "stay in the Common Room with me tonight."

"What?" he asked without really understanding why she would ask him something like that.

"Please," she murmured.

"Sleep here?" he asked, looking at the battered, old couch with a groan.

She nodded. "Trust me," she said softly, but firmly.

"Why?"

She swallowed and looked away from him. "Because you want to be here if something happens…"

He furrowed his brow and looked at her intently, but when it was clear that she wouldn't say anything else he just turned to look at the fire as well, waiting for something that he didn't even know what it was.


End file.
